The End of an Era: I’m Quitting

Not clickbait, I have some big career news to share.

Hi there,

So I mentioned at the end of my last newsletter that I had something big to announce this month, hence why I’m bringing this to you on the 5th instead of the 1st of the month.

This is it! This is the first public public announcement! Of course my family, friends and colleagues already know, Patrons found out recently but this is the first PUBLIC thing! Aaaaahhhh!!!!! Here goes… 🥳

I am taking an indefinite sabbatical from my online sex ed work at the end of this year. “Indefinite sabbatical” sounds much fancier than just “I quit”, but yeah I’m quitting. What that means in practical terms is that I will no longer be posting on the Hannah Witton & Friends YouTube channel and this Deep Dives series is going to be the last series of Doing It Podcast. Before you say anything, just know that this is a really joyous and peaceful decision for me. It took A LOT of confusion, pain and self-reflection to get to this point but as soon as I realised what it is that I needed to do/wanted to do, everything felt calm and right.

I imagine you have a lot of questions but here’s the TL:DR of it all:

(You may need to click “view entire message” at the bottom if this email gets cut off in your inbox!)

What’s happening? I’m going on an indefinite sabbatical from my online sex ed work.

What is stopping? - Hannah Witton & Friends YouTube channel and Doing It Podcast.

When? - End of 2023.

What’s continuing? - More Hannah YouTube channel, Between the Sheets (this newsletter!), Patreon and social media!

Why? - I feel like I’ve said everything that I want to or can say about sex and relationships at this point and I’m ready for a change. These projects feel finished and complete to me. It’s finally time to refill the well.

What are you going to do next? - I’m hoping to pursue working more behind the scenes with content creators helping them with project management and their careers.

We can get into the feelings of it all (because there are a lot of feelings) later but I wanted to use this space to first lay out the logistics. Because of course, ya girl isn’t just going to quit - “bye, see you later!”. There’s a whole plan, a whole schedule involved 🤓

So here is what December is going to look like:

• TODAY (5th Dec)!

  • 4pm GMT: Announcement video on the Hannah Witton & Friends YouTube Channel. This will be going out as a premiere so join at 4pm so we can all watch at the same time and chat in the live chat!

• Tomorrow (6th December):

  • Final episode of the Deep Dives series of Doing It Podcast (on the theme of sex positive parenting!)

  • Head over to @doingitpodcast on Instagram to ask your Qs about the pod for me, Mia and Moog to answer the final final closing episode.

  • 8pm GMT - livestream for all Patrons to chat about the change, answer any of your Qs and talk about future plans. Register here if you want to join!

• 7th December:

  • Vlognukah starts on More Hannah!

  • Video: How I Made the Decision to Quit

  • Patreon Reading List: A special edition of the usual monthly reading list with everything I read/watched/listened to that helped me make this decision or resonated in someway or I took as a “sign” that I needed to move on.

• 9th December:

  • Video: Quitting Q&A (Qs submitted by Patrons and already filmed but will hopefully answer many of your questions!)

• 10th December:

  • Video: End of Era Work Vlog

• 12th December:

  • Video: PLEASURE TROVE SPECIAL: End of year sexy faves!

• 19th December:

  • Video: DRUNK ADVICE SPECIAL! 🥂

• 21st December:

  • Video: Reflecting on my 2023

• 26th December:

  • Video: Hannah Witton Channel BEST BITS! I need your help for this one! If you have any favourite or Most Important moments from Hannah Witton channel videos that we should put into a big celebratory montage please fill out this google form with the link and timestamp! THANK YOU! 💛

PLUS ALL THE OTHER VLOGNUKAH CONTENT THAT IS UNRELATED TO THIS CAREER SHIFT.

I’m going to leave you with that for now. There is a lot more to come as you can see. This job, this career so far has been so rewarding and I’m so proud of everything I’ve made and the work I’ve done and the impact it has had on people’s lives. Of course, you, my audience, in whatever way you’ve engaged with my content from a casual viewer to a member of my Patreon have been a wonderful and important part of this whole thing, so thank you, honestly, for everything💛

P.S. if you need more info now there is a monster long post on my Patreon going into the whats and the whys and another about the future of my Patreon if you are interested in what’s happening there (both are no longer behind a paywall, so anyone can read them) xx

I mean not much else to share other than everything above!

This section of the newsletter will go next year as I need the clean break from sex ed related things otherwise my brain will get all confused and it won’t feel like a real ending. So what do I want to highlight here??? The pressure!

One of the reasons I’m ready to move on is because I feel like I’m leaving you in good hands, so if you’re ever looking for some more thoughtful, kind and informative sex and relationships content, as well as basically every guest I’ve ever had on the YouTube channel and podcast, here are some folks and organisations I would highly recommend:

Ruby Rare - currently working on a book about polyamory!

Emily Nagoski - her newsletter, Confidence and Joy, is incredible for answering people’s sex and relationships questions in an agony aunt format

Dr Karen Gurney - for up-to-date sex science and a book out next year about your sex life after having kids!

Reproductive Justice Initiative - they have recently transitioned into a charitable organisation and really excited about the amazing work they do and will continue to do in the reproductive justice space

Decrim Now - fighting for decriminalisation of sex work and sex worker’s rights in the UK

Erika Hart - sex educator, I’ve learned so much from her Instagram and they’re currently writing a book about how systems of oppression impact pleasure

Eva Bloom - for all your queer and trans sex ed needs!

And on a more frivolous note, I doubt I’ll be promoting my sex toy discount codes and affiliate links all that much next year but if you bookmark this page, then whenever you’re in need of a new sex toy, come back to it and hopefully you can find yourself some sweet sweet discounts!

Also, before I made the decision to quit sex ed, I had started working with Essentials, which has now launched! There you can find video reviews of me talking about some of my fave sex toys and when you shop through them discounts are automatically applied. Enjoy! 🍑🍆💦

All will be revealed in one of the vlognukah videos about changing up our kitchen/living room but I cannot be contained and want to give you a sneak peek now. We got a custom built TV unit/shelves/cupboards made for our living room and we got ourselves a fancy butchers block to create more work surfaces in the kitchen just in time for hosting Christmas! I AM OBSESSED. We knew we’d have to make some changes to the flat when we made the decision to stay instead of move in to a bigger house AND (spoiler alert) this career change for me means leaving the studio so we need more storage space at home. Et voila!

The butchers block we found on Etsy and the TV unit is by Daniel Mackinlay.

Although you didn’t know it at the time, the last sex education video I’m making was last week’s “What Feminists Get Wrong About Sex Work” and I’m so proud of that video!

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Join us tomorrow eve - Wednesday 6th Dec 8pm GMT - for a live discussion/Q&A to chat all about this career change! Register here!

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Thanks for reading, hope you're well!

All the best,

Hannah xxx