There are times when I hear a story from the WordPress community and I think “That’s a HeroPress story”, whether it has been or ever will actually be posted on the site. Some stories are just so great that you think “Wow, that’s just really great”. This week’s essay is one of those stories, but…
I have always embraced an entrepreneurial spirit. As a kid in the 1970’s, I tagged along with my parents to craft shows on the weekends where they made and sold hand-stamped leather belts to earn extra income and I made macrame necklaces and sold those too. When I was 14 I told my dad I…
Over the years people have occasionally said, “You should have a donation form; I’d like to help support HeroPress”. Recently a particularly deep conversation convinced me that allowing people to take part financially is a different, broader way for others to contribute to HeroPress. Since HeroPress doesn’t exist without its contributors, I consulted them first…
Beginnings I was born into a working-class family in Targoviste, a small town in Romania situated around 50 miles from the capital, Bucharest. My childhood was a normal one, mostly happy but marked negatively by the frequent conflicts between my parents. Growing up, they didn’t have much to offer to me and my brother. They…
Did you know there are still several states in the US where employers can fire me for being gay? Legislation and protections have improved in the past several years, but there are still large gaps throughout the United States for queer and trans people. In addition, I hear horror stories of toxic workplaces that my…
When I moved from Bogota (Colombia) to Paris I did a degree in translation and found myself, years later, working for one of the most important publishers specializing in research. But my dream since I left Colombia was to study Psychology. After about two years, I quit my job and went back to college. It…
I grew up in a suburb to Stockholm, where me and my brothers would wrestle over who was allowed to use our first PC. I think it was a pre-owned old beaten Compaq Deskpro 386. We only stopped arguing once we could sit down together and play Civ; one of us at the controls, the…
The first time I ever made a WordPress site, I got 180,000 views in 2 days, 253 comments, and (give or take) 7 death threats. It was 2014 and I was working on an MBA at Florida State University during the peak of the Jameis Winston controversy, where a football quarterback was accused of rape…
One of the first addons for HeroPress I ever thought of was sending people to WordCamp who might have a hard time getting there. HeroPress started out to be a voice for people on the fringe of WordPress, and being outside the ability to go to WordCamp practically defines the fringe. I never could figure…
As long as I can remember being normal was my only goal in life. If only I could be normal, then everything would be alright. There was not a lot wrong in my life when I was a kid, growing up in a small dutch town. I had a normal family with 2 parents (a…
