Mera Magazine is a website and newsletter featuring raw, honest, and funny essays, interviews, book recs, and more fun stuff from midlife. It’s written and edited by Alexis Mera Damen, a Dutch-American writer and aspiring author living in Amsterdam with her plant babies and partner. New issues are delivered to your inbox a maximum of twice a week and a minimum of once a month.

Hey, hello, hi. I’m Alexis. I was born and raised in New York, and I am currently living my best life (and exploring my Dutch roots) in Amsterdam. Mera is my middle name, which I inherited from my great-great-grandmother on my mom’s side. By day, I’m a freelance content strategist and writer for tech, e-commerce, and lifestyle companies. Here, I’m exploring personal essay, humor writing, and a bunch of other fun stuff, and one of my essays was published in HuffPost. When I’m not writing, you can find me on the padel court, at CrossFit, traveling, trying new recipes, or learning to paint.

This is exactly on the money. Such a great read this morning! —Gayle

Alexis, thank you for writing this. Your point about there being no universal timeline really resonated with me. —Desaree

Alexis writes funny, down-to-earth, heartfelt essays that are always my favorite of the week! —Lindsey

Funny + wise insights from a fellow American expat in Europe. —Lee

I too grew up ashamed of my teeth! Appreciate you. —Kate

A great piece of writing Alexis. —Hannah

This is so funny. —Leslie

• My husband dumped me on FaceTime (Personal)

• I don’t want kids, and I’m finally OK with that (Personal)

• I failed my mental load test, here’s what I’m doing about it (Personal/Wellbeing)

• 13 signs you’ve entered midlife (Midlife humor)

• I thought divorce at 33 meant failure—until I reinvented my life in Amsterdam (Personal)

• Brownies (an essay about love, loss, and finding comfort in brownies) (Personal)

• I was a toothless teenager—here’s how it shaped me (Personal)

• I’m motherless, now what? (Personal)

• Things worth sharing... 8 books I loved this year (Recs)

• What’s your love language? (Relationship humor)

• Work with Mera Magazine: Pitch a story or learn more about my services

• For content marketing and writing services: contact me here

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I appreciate your readership alone, but if you’d like to further support Mera Magazine and my independent writing and journalism (and help me reach my dream of becoming a partially retired middle-aged writer lady by the age of 55), consider becoming a paid subscriber. Thank you so much.