Low Swank is
a blog and newsletter
by Morgan West

Maybe we’ll start with hits from the CV: In 2005 I launched a street style blog and online art mag, then spent about a decade doing freelance brand strategy and visuals. I founded a 1.8-million-use hashtag in 2015, and later became a creative director-turned-global brand director for a boutique hotel portfolio. It was a ride.

A visual genius – Refinery29
A tastemaker – The Washington Post
But do you have health insurance – my Dad

Throughout it all, I wrote about, photographed, and otherwise documented my life on my personal blog and across social. Fifteen years of hi-res internet visibility culminated in a COVID-era run-in with Q*non conspiracy theorists. It was surreal, and I’ll write about it eventually. By the end of 2020 I’d archived my online projects, moved to the mountains, and started a several-year-long sabbatical.

As of 2025, I’m back at it. I’ve long considered the internet to be an outlet, a medium, and a lens; I’m 44 and still endlessly curious about how other people live their lives—it feels right to once again start cataloging my own. This is very millennial, I know, but some things simply cannot be helped. I’m a writer who writes, and writing should be read; may all our art be granted an audience (and I mean that sincerely).

And so: Low Swank is one woman’s perspective on…all of it? Being in your 40s, following curiosity, and knowing that the personal is a tiny bit universal. Subscribe for writing, links, and inspiration sent to your inbox twice a month, and catch up on past essays here.