Amy de Souza
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amydesouza.bsky.social
Amy de Souza
@amydesouza.bsky.social
18 followers 9 following 40 posts
Writer. Casting director. Daughter of storytellers. Finding my voice-and helping others feel seen.
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amydesouza.bsky.social
A referral isn’t transactional. It’s relational.
amydesouza.substack.com/p/in-praise-...
#trust
In Praise of the Referral
I am what market researchers call a market maven: someone who shares opinions about products, places, services, and experiences—and actually tells other people about them.
amydesouza.substack.com
January 21, 2026 at 2:42 AM
amydesouza.bsky.social
New essay: The Conversion Machine — on political evangelism, strained relationships, and the pressure to be “converted” instead of understood.

amydesouza.substack.com/p/the-conver...

#Politics #Culture #PersonalEssay #Disinformation #Psychology
The Conversion Machine
I noticed it for the first time when Charlie Kirk died.
open.substack.com
January 13, 2026 at 8:40 PM
amydesouza.bsky.social
Apria Healthcare is a nightmare. Weeks of delays for sleep apnea parts, no order number, no tracking, no delivery. Customer service apologizes endlessly, promises fixes, then hangs up. Nothing ever happens.
#apriahealthcare
January 12, 2026 at 9:17 PM
amydesouza.bsky.social
New essay ✍️
Buy Once, Cry Once — on denial, money, and how avoiding what we really want often costs more in the end.
open.substack.com/pub/amydesou...
Buy Once, Cry Once: Learning the Cost of Denial
There is a phrase people often use when talking about purchases: buy once, cry once.
open.substack.com
December 24, 2025 at 3:16 AM
amydesouza.bsky.social
My dad used to say I’d show up to the opening of an envelope — I loved going out.
Funny how much that’s changed.
New essay on quieter friendships + shrinking circles:
🔗 open.substack.com/pub/amydesou...
I Don’t Need a Crowd Anymore
On friendship, adulthood, and the peace I didn’t know I needed
open.substack.com
December 8, 2025 at 12:59 AM
amydesouza.bsky.social
New essay: No Indoor Plumbing, No Interest
We all have those “I don’t watch ___” rules — until one story surprises us.
Read:
open.substack.com/pub/amydesou...

#Writing #Essays #Film #Culture #Storytelling
No Indoor Plumbing, No Interest
On the funny little rules we make about what we’ll allow ourselves to enjoy
open.substack.com
November 5, 2025 at 9:39 PM
amydesouza.bsky.social
Words can wound, protect, or accuse.
My latest essay looks at one of the heaviest:
Genocide.

Why this word hits differently for Jews — and what happens when language outruns law.

open.substack.com/pub/amydesou...

#Substack #Writing #Language #Genocide #JewishPerspective
The Weight of a Word
Trying to Understand the Word “Genocide”
open.substack.com
October 22, 2025 at 7:18 PM
amydesouza.bsky.social
I’d wake up to him on top of me saying, “I’m gonna fuck you, you dirty whore,” then he’d roll over and sleep like nothing happened.

No one called it assault. Not even me.

#Redial #ChristopherMcWillie
🔗 open.substack.com/pub/amydesou...
Redial
A Story of Grooming, Betrayal, and Unnamed Violations Perpetrated by Christopher McWillie
open.substack.com
October 14, 2025 at 4:15 PM
amydesouza.bsky.social
I fed a relationship meltdown into AI to understand the pattern.
Spoiler: the machine wasn’t wrong.
#relationships #boundaries #healing #selfrespect #lettinggo #psychology #memoir

Read: Reconnecting with Mr. Transactional
🔗 open.substack.com/pub/amydesou...
Reconnecting with Mr. Transactional
How AI Helped Me See a Relationship Pattern I Couldn’t Before
open.substack.com
October 8, 2025 at 6:48 PM
amydesouza.bsky.social
We followed a shirtless teen into the infamous Manson Caves.
Flashlights, graffiti, poison ivy, the flu—what could possibly go wrong?

✍️ Read my latest essay: open.substack.com/pub/amydesou...

#IntoTheMansonCaves #UrbanExploration #LosAngelesStories #WritingCommunity
Into the Manson Caves
That Time We Followed a Shirtless Teen Through a Hole in the Earth
open.substack.com
October 1, 2025 at 6:57 PM
amydesouza.bsky.social
Just published:
I Was Sent to School for Bad Kids

Inside Vista Del Mar. The place for kids who were “too much.”

#PersonalEssay #Memoir #Trauma #FirstLove #IraKruskol
👉 amydesouza.substack.com/p/i-was-sent...
I Was Sent to School for Bad Kids
Inside Vista Del Mar, the place for kids who were “too much.”
amydesouza.substack.com
September 3, 2025 at 5:54 PM
amydesouza.bsky.social
During the 2008 writers’ strike, my dad (#StevenEDeSouza) was directing, I was casting.
It was bikinis + comedy. Someone thought it was porn. It wasn’t. But the fiasco? 🤯
👉 open.substack.com/pub/amydesou...
#Hollywood #WritersStrike #CastingChaos
StrikeTV
Bikinis, Blondes, and a Faux Porn Fiasco
open.substack.com
August 27, 2025 at 5:18 PM
amydesouza.bsky.social
New on Substack: First Date: Yogurt. Second Date: CDC Guidelines.
A post-divorce, pre-this-marriage dating story featuring yogurt, ex talk & an HPV confession.

👉 open.substack.com/pub/amydesou...

#DatingAfterDivorce #PreThisMarriage #SubstackWriters #Memoir
First Date: Yogurt. Second Date: CDC Guidelines.
A dating story from my post-divorce, pre-this-marriage era
open.substack.com
August 20, 2025 at 6:01 PM
amydesouza.bsky.social
From lentil soup to a lasting friendship.
My latest Substack: Studio Caffè Magazzino — Soup, Small Talk, and the Start of Something Bigger

open.substack.com/pub/amydesou...

#Burbank #CafeCulture #FriendshipGoals #MemoirMoments
Studio Caffè Magazzino
Soup, Small Talk, and the Start of Something Bigger
open.substack.com
August 13, 2025 at 6:40 PM
amydesouza.bsky.social
🎬 The Steamy Streamys — 2009’s red carpet chaos, web TV style.

With the Angels (shoutout to @MaryFeuer) was somehow up against Battlestar Galactica 🤯

Cringe, chaos, Papa John’s… and Lisa Kudrow. 🍕

📖 amydesouza.substack.com/p/the-steamy...
#StreamyAwards #WebTV #2000sNostalgia #Hollywood
The Steamy Streamys
A 2009 time capsule from the red carpet of web TV’s awkward first awards show
amydesouza.substack.com
August 6, 2025 at 9:34 PM
amydesouza.bsky.social
New on Substack:
Not One of Them Had Kids
We said we wanted children. We lived like we didn’t. Now we’re in our 50s—and it’s clear.

A reflection on the life I built without children, and the men who did the same.

🔗 amydesouza.substack.com/p/not-one-of...

#ChildfreeNotLess #MidlifeReflections
Not One of Them Had Kids
We said we wanted children. We lived like we didn’t. Now we’re in our 50s — and it’s clear.
amydesouza.substack.com
July 30, 2025 at 7:34 PM
amydesouza.bsky.social
Just dropped a new one:
🛏️ Comfort Sleep Clinic: A Tale of Wires, Urine, and Total Administrative Breakdown
Where the only thing studied more than your sleep is your tolerance for chaos.

amydesouza.substack.com/p/comfort-sl...

#SleepStudyFail #HealthcareHumor #ComfortSleepClinic
Comfort Sleep Clinic
A Tale of Wires, Urine, and Total Administrative Breakdown
amydesouza.substack.com
July 16, 2025 at 6:04 PM
amydesouza.bsky.social
Just published a new story about my grandmother Evelyne—chain-smoking, casino-hustling, Dove Bar-loving force of nature who went from Atlantic City to running errands like a general in orthopedic shoes. 💄🚗

#GrandmothersOfInstagram #FamilyStories #WritingCommunity
July 9, 2025 at 6:09 PM
amydesouza.bsky.social
Some men are in full-blown relationships and still insist they’re just “activity partners.”
New Substack is up—about denial, matchbooks, and the time I had to tell a guy he had a girlfriend.
🔗 amydesouza.substack.com/p/activity-p...
#ModernLove #DatingFails #Situationships #TrueStory
Activity Partner (And Other Denial Mechanisms)
Back in 2007, I learned something strange:
amydesouza.substack.com
July 2, 2025 at 6:47 PM
amydesouza.bsky.social
Menopause, AI, and the Case of the Missing Collagen

Today I turn 52. My face got the memo—loud and clear.

open.substack.com/pub/amydesou...

#Menopause #Midlife #Perimenopause #AgingHonestly #SkincareOver50 #RealTalk #Alastin #NoBotox #AIandAging #ThisIs52 #SubstackWriters #WomenOver50
Menopause, AI, and the Case of the Missing Collagen
Today I turn 52. My face got the memo. Loud and clear.
open.substack.com
June 24, 2025 at 10:22 PM
amydesouza.bsky.social
Jesse gave me my first kiss.
His little sister Gaby gave me a lifelong friendship—and a grilled cheese hack I still use.
A story about being twelve, causing trouble, and finding your people.

📝 open.substack.com/pub/amydesou...
#FirstKiss #ComingOfAge #GrilledCheeseWisdom #SubstackWriters
First Kiss
Jesse gave me my first kiss. Gaby gave me a lifelong friendship—and a grilled cheese hack I still swear by.
open.substack.com
June 18, 2025 at 5:05 AM
amydesouza.bsky.social
New post: The Catch-and-Release Generation
What happens to connection when everyone’s just one swipe away?

open.substack.com/pub/amydesou...

#DatingCulture #ModernLove #CatchAndRelease #SwipeFatigue #SubstackWriters
The Catch-and-Release Generation
What Happens to Connection When Everyone’s Just One Swipe Away
open.substack.com
June 10, 2025 at 11:33 PM
amydesouza.bsky.social
Ever smell someone and feel your whole system react?
Not love. Not lust. Just biology on blast.
But that spark? It’s not always a green flag.

🧠💔 The Chemistry Trap is up now.
#Dating #Relationships #Pheromones #TheSpark #Matchmaking #LoveVsLust #Essay #Substack

open.substack.com/pub/amydesou...
The Chemistry Trap
Why That Spark Might Burn You
open.substack.com
June 3, 2025 at 5:58 PM
amydesouza.bsky.social
New Substack: I Want, I Need, I’ve Got to Have
At 12, it was Guess jeans and the Galleria. At 35, it was a man who couldn’t give me more.
A story about yearning, rebounds, and owning what you need.

amydesouza.substack.com/p/i-want-i-need-ive-got-to-have

#PersonalEssay #Relationships #Nostalgia
I Want, I Need, I’ve Got to Have
What a middle school meltdown, a pair of Guess jeans, and a grown-up breakup taught me about yearning
amydesouza.substack.com
May 27, 2025 at 7:34 PM
amydesouza.bsky.social
She yelled at my boyfriend the day we met.
Later, she fed me pasta at 2 a.m. and became one of the most important people in my life.

open.substack.com/pub/amydesou...

#Memoir #TrueStory #WomenSupportingWomen #ChosenFamily #WritingCommunity #ItsNotTooLate
Josephine at 2 A.M.
How My Italian Neighbor Became Family
open.substack.com
May 20, 2025 at 7:00 PM