Greetings! I am Petra Khashoggi, author of the newsletter Beauty Chest. The plan was to launch in January 2024, so here we are on the 31st, just in time for take-off.
This newsletter is for those interested in superficial matters of beauty (hair, makeup, cosmetics, treatments, you name it), the midlife aging process (which I am attempting to embrace with grace!), and exploring the deeper meaning of aesthetics.
Beauty Chest welcomes readers of all ages and genders, for essentially it is about that beautiful chest inside every one of us.
1. Who is Petra?
I am an Anglo-American journalist. I write about lifestyle and beauty and have bylines in The Times, The Mail on Sunday, Vogue, Elle, Tatler, and Perspective.
Born in Los Angeles, I was raised and educated in England, an 80s baby who ‘came of age’ in the 90s. I am not Gen X, nor am I a Millennial. I am part of a micro-generation—a Xennial. I have vivid memories of an analog childhood before uploading to a digital adulthood. It was great to be young pre-social media, when magazines were everything to a teenage girl like me.
As a child, I loved dressing up. A beauty chest would have been on my Christmas List. I was never in a beauty pageant or anything like that, though I did once dress up as a belly dancer from Arabian Nights for a fancy dress competition on the QE2.
By the time I was 16, dressing up and being photographed was my livelihood. For over a decade, I was a fashion model and international ‘It’ girl who traveled the world living with reckless abandon. After modeling, I worked as an art dealer at London’s Gagosian Gallery before returning to higher education.
I gained a Masters in Screenwriting and Film Production at The University of Westminster and am the writer / producer of Keep the Chocolates, a sweet but short film that won Best Romantic Comedy at a New York film festival. I am also the author of a children’s book, Operation Bumpkin Birthday.
Nowadays, I am happily married to my childhood friend, leading a mostly quiet life as a freelance writer in New York City.
2. What’s inside the Beauty Chest?
All things bright and beautiful. But it’s not all glitz and glam—in fact, very little.
I delve into the well of emotions that accompany being human. Matters of the heart are a preoccupation of mine in this sometimes cold, harsh world. As an HSP (Highly Sensitive Person, if you didn’t know), managing emotions and mental wellness is a key part of daily life—more of a challenge for some than others.
The healing path is not linear. Recovery is a process, which is about finding the courage to face the Truth… not always easy, but therein lies real beauty.
3. When?
For now, I will be posting once a week, possibly every two weeks if I am working on a longer essay.
4. Where?
As keeper and creator of this chest, my words come from my heart right into your email inbox via this awesome platform Substack, which has only taken me a year to launch (I joined as a reader in January 2023).
5. Why subscribe?
Why not? Give it a whirl. You can always unsubscribe.
For now, all my posts are free. In time, I will put more personal content, in the form of longer essays, behind a paywall.
And why now?
Substack is an exciting place to be in 2024. I am delighted to begin this journey and I’d love for you, dear reader, to join me.
Hello, Petra. (not Petra Kvitova, but my Petra reference, after many years of playing and teaching tennis). Just discovered your Beauty Chest - my little strongbox of memories is Anglo-American via New England, years in LA and now France. Hope to enjoy your posts.
Glad to find you here, Petra. I'm thinking that perhaps "beauty chest" has a meaning unique to UK. In the US of my late boomer stage, there were special pieces of luggage called a "make-up case." Is that the same thing? Mine was Samsonite and beige, though I never used it. Very popular among beauty pageant contestants. Is that similar?