What is Sugar Pills?
Sugar Pills is a newsletter about love, friendship, estrangement, emotional debt, minor betrayals, group texts, gossip, disappointment, obligation, celebration, and all the quiet recalibrations that make up a life.
Here, I write about the texture of adult relationships: what gets said, what doesn’t, and what gets distorted in the space between. I’m interested in how we show up for each other, and how often we don’t, or can’t. This newsletter is a space for the thoughts that arrive uninvited and stay too long. (Also, because I am an avid consumer of… everything… there will be product recommendations on whatever I am consuming that week (food, books, articles, clothing, etc.))
I believe in oversharing as a public service. I believe most things are either hilarious or devastating depending on the lighting. I write because otherwise I would simply talk too much in real life and get disinvited from group trips.
This is a place for anyone who’s ever stayed at a party too long out of guilt, dated someone out of curiosity, or cried at kids blowing bubbles in Central Park in the summer. Welcome. Stay as long as you want. No one here is going to make you split the check evenly.
Why Sugar Pills?
Sugar Pills are the placebo pills in a pack of birth control. You take them when there’s nothing active left—just to stay on schedule, to keep the rhythm.
That idea stuck with me. How many things do we keep doing, not because they help, but because they’re part of the routine? What are the sugar pills in our lives? The habits, the people, the conversations that feel good until they don’t. The things we use to convince ourselves we’re fine, even when we’re not.
This newsletter is a space to examine those placebos. Looking at what we hold onto, what we perform, and what’s maybe overdue for a reset.
Who, me?
I’m Sydney Portigal. I’m a brand and communications strategist and a writer. I work at the intersection of storytelling, strategy, and culture, helping brands and individuals articulate who they are and what they stand for. My personal writing is an attempt to make sense of the mess: emotional, structural, interpersonal, and historical. I’m drawn to the moments that feel too small for essays but too sticky to ignore. I care about language, about context, about how we talk to each other when we’re not sure what we’re trying to say.
Other than surpassing the average word count on Substack, you can find me in Manhattan spending too much money on restaurants and trying to find a table at literally any coffee shop (re: Big Coffee). I’m obsessed with art, food, and finding communities where creating is at the core.
You can find more of me here:
📧 sydney.portigal@gmail.com
