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The Lingerie Addict, a blog where for more than 14 years unmentionables were not only mentioned, but also the subject of thoughtful consideration, announced on Sunday that it was ending publication.
Cora Harrington, the blog’s founder and editor in chief, wrote in a post that the blog, which has been dedicated exclusively to intimate apparel since its creation, would be closing down operations at the end of the month.
In her post, Ms. Harrington cited a changing online landscape as one reason for closing up shop.
“Many people don’t necessarily find information from blogs anymore,” she wrote, adding that “the internet — particularly social platforms — are becoming more hostile to my topic.”
“It’s a constant uphill battle,” Ms. Harrington said, “and one I’m increasingly tired of fighting.”
In an interview on Monday, Ms. Harrington said that her content had lately gotten more engagement on platforms beyond the blog, which she says has recently averaged 75,000 to 80,000 visitors a month, compared with the hundreds of thousands of monthly readers the blog attracted in years past.
Ms. Harrington, 37, also said that she felt she had changed and grown as a person since starting the blog in her early 20s.
“Fourteen years is a really long time to run a site,” she said. “I’m not the same person I was then.”
Ms. Harrington started The Lingerie Addict in April 2008 after finding a lack of information about the ins and outs of lingerie. Beyond just housing her informational content, like reviews, editorials and tutorials, she soon saw the platform’s potential as an inclusive corner of the internet.
“The Lingerie Addict has always been about being a ‘body-snark-free zone’ where we don’t talk about people’s bodies, don’t judge people’s bodies,” she said. “It’s always been about being an inclusive environment for lingerie that is welcoming to sex workers, to trans people, to queer people, to nonbinary people.”
The diverse community Ms. Harrington fostered online through the blog continues to be an active one, she said. While comments have slowed on the site itself, interactions with and conversations around Ms. Harrington’s content continue to flourish on social media.
When she announced the news to her 80,000 followers on Twitter, Ms. Harrington was met with an outpouring of support and praise for her last nearly decade and a half of work.
“This vocal and visible support that I’m getting from thousands of people who are reading my work and have never felt the need to interact with me but are telling me now that what I did was meaningful, that means so much me,” she said.
Tekla Taylor, 31, a digital media manager in Alexandria, Va., who has been following the blog since 2015 and is a member of The Lingerie Addict’s Facebook group, expressed appreciation for Ms. Harrington’s work, adding that “the archives are going to be a treasure for years to come.”
“As time goes on and the web gets more fragmented and dominated by algorithmic social media platforms, an individual site or blog that really loves its subject matter becomes even more meaningful,” they wrote on Twitter.
Ms. Harrington noted in her Sunday post, titled “Saying Goodbye to The Lingerie Addict,” that while she planned to close the comments on all posts, the blog’s archives, shop and associated Patreon would all remain open.
She hopes to take some time off before beginning work on her second book and, eventually, creating space for The Lingerie Addict in her life in a new way.
“I don’t want to leave The Lingerie Addict behind — I don’t want it to come across like I’m dropping everything related to it,” Ms. Harrington said on Monday. “The question is, ‘How do I move forward so that The Lingerie Addict is a part of my life and not all?’ And that’s something I think it’s going to take a little bit of time to figure out.”
