Editor’s Letter: WeLived, Reimagined

When WeLived launched in 2022, I wanted somewhere to write. Somewhere to document the places I had been, the things I had experienced and the thoughts that needed more room than an Instagram caption could give.
So I built a website, started telling stories and for the most part, left the website to do its job.

Four years later, that original site has carried WeLived further than I probably imagined it would. It has been home to travel stories, personal essays and all the different versions of my writing between then and now.
But while the stories were evolving, the space they lived in largely stayed the same.

Eventually, it became clear that WeLived had outgrown its first home.

So, for only the second time since its inception, WeLived has a new look. And this one feels significant, not because there is a new colour palette or a different homepage, but because this redesign reflects a much clearer idea of what WeLived is becoming.

A little less blog, a little more publication

When WeLived started, I thought of it as a blog. I don't think that description quite fits anymore.

I want WeLived to grow into a South African digital publication about how we live - where we go, what we eat, what we're talking about, who we're meeting and the things happening around us, things worth paying attention to.
Personal stories will remain a big part of that, but the ambition is wider now.

The first chapter stays

Redesigning the site also meant spending a lot of time with the archive. I knew very quickly that I didn't want to clean everything up simply because WeLived looks different now.

There are stories from 2022 that I would write differently today. There are headlines I would change, photographs I would probably choose differently and paragraphs I might cut. But those stories belong to the publication just as much as the ones being written now.

They are the first chapter.

The archive shows where WeLived started, what interested me at different points and most importantly, how the writing has grown. I like that someone can arrive here today and still find the earlier versions of the publication.
Growth is much more interesting when you can see where it started.

What comes next

The new WeLived has been designed with reading at its centre. It is cleaner, easier to move through and gives both new and older stories more room to breathe. Readers can now also subscribe and have new stories delivered directly to their inbox, which feels like an important step for a platform that I want people to visit intentionally, rather than only when I post about it on my socials. 

But ultimately, a new website only matters if there are good stories to fill it.

So that's where the real work starts.

There will be more travel, but also more culture, food, people, useful reads, commentary and stories that begin with something small and end up somewhere unexpected. There is a lot I still want to explore with WeLived, and eventually, I would love for this to become a home for more voices than my own.

For now, though, this feels like the beginning of WeLived's second chapter. The first one gave us four years of stories and a pretty good idea of what this platform could become.

Now it has a home built for where it wants to go next.

Welcome to the new WeLived.

Nomfundo Lovejoy Mlaba
Editor, WeLived