Welcome!
Hi, I’m Gretchen Rubin. For years, I’ve been studying human nature and exploring ways we can build happier lives. I describe myself as a “street scientist,” and I’ve also been called an “armchair anthropologist,” “idea tycoon,” and “happiness bully.”
What is this project?
Here, I’ll share the stories that have taught me the “Secrets of Adulthood” that I’ve learned (usually from my own experience or from a book) about how we can create happier, healthier, more productive, and more creative lives. How do we know ourselves? How can we change, if we want to change? How do we move from good intentions to concrete actions?
But don’t worry: While that description may make these stories sound somber, I aim to give you stories that are compelling, playful, and funny, as well as profound.
These “secrets” are short, because I have great respect for the power of brevity. For me, I’ve found, I’m able to express a big idea in a few words only if I truly understand what I’m trying to say. Also, for readers, brevity promotes insight. When an observation is conveyed in just a few paragraphs, it prompts reflection more easily.
Join me
Subscribe for an exploration of that endlessly fascinating subject: the practice of everyday life. Free subscribers will hear from me several times each month. You’ll also be notified about my live video series, which features my conversations with other writers and thinkers about their own Secrets of Adulthood.
In addition, I want to use this project to hear from you. We can all learn from each other. For that reason, in our community of paid subscribers, each story will include a reflective prompt for you to consider, as well as access to the comments section. (The comment feature is limited to paid subscribers because of a Secret of Adulthood that we’ve all observed: “People who post for free are far more likely to be disrespectful than people who pay to post.”) I can’t wait to hear what resonates with you—and what doesn’t.
Paid subscribers also gain exclusive access to bonus content and community events, including AMAs with Gretchen, email challenges, downloadable resources, and book clubs throughout the year.
If you can’t afford the subscription, please email us about a scholarship at [email protected].
A bit more about me
Gretchen Rubin is a seven-time New York Times bestselling author who studies happiness, habits, and human nature. She’s known for her ability to be both entertaining and serious, profound and practical, thought-provoking yet propulsively readable, and to write about herself in a way that helps people understand themselves.
She has cultivated a vast, passionate audience who actively engages with her and her work across many channels. She has sold millions of books, in more than thirty languages; she hosts the award-winning, top-ranked podcast, Happier with Gretchen Rubin; she has more than 1.4 million subscribers to her “Five Things Making Me Happy” weekly newsletter; she created an award-winning app, the Happier app; she made a line of beautifully designed happiness-boosting journals and other products; and she is a sought-after speaker who makes regular appearances across the media landscape.
She’s been interviewed by Oprah, eaten dinner with Nobel-prizewinner Daniel Kahneman, walked arm-in-arm with the Dalai Lama, had her work written up in a medical journal, and been an answer on the game show Jeopardy!
After starting her career in law, she realized she wanted to be a writer while she was clerking for Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. Raised in Kansas City, she lives in New York City with her family.
She’s left-handed, red-haired, extremely myopic, loves to read, has given up on meditation, sticks to a very low-carb diet, dislikes games, is a fearful driver, lives around the corner from her in-laws, and is a big fan of children’s literature, coffee, and high-intensity weight-training. She has no long-term hobbies other than reading, writing, and running experiments on herself. She once passed out cold on live television. She makes constant references to The Office.
