Hello! My name is Alisa, and this post is basically me breaking the weird hard ice that is writing my first newletter article, and also my first ever form of “content creation that I upload as Alisa Pham on the internet.

Starting a newsletter or a blog-page where I can put down my thoughts, narratives, mini-essays of topics which I care about has always been something I aspire to do. As a little short speedrun of my achievements, I have:

With all of this in mind, you can probably see how I might have been just a little caught up to actually put my ducks in a row to the digital space. But now with a degree under my belt and time to splurge into doing the thing which I have always loved (storytelling, communications and trying to be at least somewhat funny), this is where it will all be happening.

Coming up with a title or name for anything is probably one of humanity’s biggest challenge in any creative process. Even in university in my advertising courses, coming for a suitable title for your campaigns never seem obvious. Same goes to picking group names - I could name more times than the amount of sheeps in New Zealand where our group names for quizzes just ended up as “idk” or “no name.”

But Two Cents was a typical case of “good ideas come from strange places.”

One day I opened my wallet to the rather dull sight of two cents.

In this day and age, two cent coins totalling up to 20 cents can’t really get you much. It probably could have in my mum and grandparent’s “back-in-their-days”, but my lifespan is currrently merely 15 years too short, so the best I could remember is back when I could get snacks for $1 (which sadly isn’t the reality anymore). I was quite bummed out about this because I was outside and truly interested in snacks to piss off my dentist.

The discussion of money, decreasing/increasing values and the cost of living is always the central point for every single young person just like me, not just in New Zealand but all over the world. Part time jobs, full time jobs, hustles and the grind isn’t anything new and is especially more prevalent today than ever with social media, technology, AI and the fact that you can find any side gig to do if you put your mind to it. As a young person, I do often find that I compare myself, and my worth to the face of the dollar bill and how many of it you have in your wallet at one time.

But in these two sad cents in my wallet, I realised that while two cents, or twenty cents, twenty dollars change hands, transacted, earned again only to return to that cycle, every single one of us have our own “two cents” or ideas that are unique.

Knowledge, opinions, thoughts and perspectives are things that cannot be taken away from us. Even if you were stripped of everything, I am a strong believer in the fact that with knowledge and enough grit you can pull yourself back up. Not only that, but our stories and shared experiences can inspire, spark change & solidify our space in the world.

To me, that is what my newsletter is about: sharing my two cents, not because it is worth much in money, but it is worth everything in meaning to me as a storyteller.

And maybe some other like-minded peers can read some of the things I post and I can bring some joy to their day, start a conversation, or just be a way to read a new opinion.

Anyways, that is my two cents. I am also available on other social medias e.g Youtube, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn. You can find them linked below. They also don’t really have much going on at the moment, but this will change very soon (most likely as this newsletter makes it debut).

Happy first of the month divas!