About Lisanne Swart

I’m a writer, blogger, and publisher of the Weekly Thoughts newsletter. I speak 3 languages and have been an avid book reader ever since I was a little girl. Since the winter of 2020 I’ve been writing at Lisanneswart.com about my favourite books. I find much joy in reading a bunch of different things and love to share book recommendations with other people for interesting conversations. Along the way this blog has become my diary. My personal journey into what matters in the world and why. On this platform you’ll find me writing and speaking about the people I meet, the books I’m reading and what I’m learning. I hope you join the conversation.

I grew up watching women from all across the country sharing their personal stories at The Oprah Winfrey Show. I also spent a good amount of time watching CNN with Christiana Amanpour asking controversial questions to even more controversial world leaders. I loved author James Baldwin always speaking truth to power, and Louis Theroux from the BBC during Weird Weekends. I’ve been greatly inspired by them and many others, but especially by the way television can be used as a medium to transform lives. It’s very refreshing and inspiring that an extremely powerful medium like that can be used in such a way that it can touch lives, inform us about something we didn’t know yet, or remind us that we might be more connected to one another than we might think sometimes. Great stories can inspire people to think and act differently. Many storytellers who came before me have been a great source of inspiration for how I would like this platform to be. I hope you stay with us. 

Since the beginning of this online publication I’ve been dedicated to maintain this place advertisement-free – making it a platform solely focused on quality stories and readers’ support. The relationship between a writer and reader should, in my opinion, be personal and real. Ads intervene in that dialogue and disturb – as you will, the authenticity it needs and deserves. 

Therefore, I like this hub to be a destination for people and especially women, to share stories and ideas that matter. As the world keeps getting faster, there’s actually a shortage of thoughtful, timeless stories and ideas that are worth sharing an hour or even a week later.

While the web can be a crowded place of anonymity, clicks, self-exposure and sometimes bullying, it can also be a destination of unity, real conversations and bringing people together.