Hello, Steemit! I’m Emily, a very curious freelance writer from Downunder who’d like to get to know you a little better…

I'm here for my life better for my kid. So, I've got high hopes.

A little over a year ago, my son was born. Leading up to his birth my husband and I had started having financial troubles. At one point we were living in a tent (yep! Six long weeks, you can read more about it here if you’re curious). Then, while visiting family interstate, I was diagnosed with preeclampsia and hospitalised. Then my son was delivered prematurely by emergency c-section and spent the next month in the Special Care Nursery.

This meant we were stranded interstate. My husband lost his job, our savings dried up very rapidly, and we wound up completely broke. We had literally no money.

(I couldn't figure out how to give the photos captions. The above has become my standard profile photo. I don't like having my photo taken, but I do like dogs.)

Slowly, over the last year, we’ve rebuilt our lives. My husband found another job (an apprenticeship, actually, which means minimum wage) and I decided to get serious about freelance writing at the beginning of this year. For me, freelancing means I can juggle stay-at-home mum duties with work. But as anyone who freelances knows, establishing yourself means a tonne of work with very little reward.

(I'm working to support this little dude - never ever want to be broke again while he's around.)

I signed up this morning after reading a Medium post about Steemit by @stellabelle. I still have no clue how this all works, but I thought the best way to find out is to dive right in. So, here I am. And I’m really hoping Steemit is as good as it sounds because it could change my life as a freelancer.

A platform where I could make money directly from quality work – rather than having to go through the endless cycle of pitching and rejection, or trading labour for good old ‘exposure’ - would be incredible. Part of my brain is still telling me it’s got to be too good to be true…