About Chronically Self-Employed
A personal column by Leanna Lee
Chronically Self-Employed (CSE) is a personal column from The Chronic Worker about chronic illness, self-employment, identity, recovery, and the ongoing work of building a life that fits.
Written by Leanna Lee, CSE follows one chronically ill freelancer as she documents the practical and emotional business of making life a little more workable.
These are personal dispatches—not universal instructions.
Notes from an unfinished life
Chronic illness doesn’t divide itself neatly into professional and personal categories. Health affects work. Work affects health. Money affects care. Identity becomes tangled with capacity, productivity, independence, and the lives we once expected to build.
Chronically Self-Employed explores those intersections from the inside.
The column may wander through:
- Chronic illness and fluctuating capacity
- Freelancing and self-employment
- Mental health and recovery
- Identity, ambition, and reinvention
- Money, benefits, and financial uncertainty
- Rest, care, and self-management
- Creativity, pleasure, fashion, travel, and play
About the author
Leanna Lee is a chronically ill and disabled freelance writer and strategist who has been self-employed since 2013.
Her work sits at the intersections of health, disability, work, identity, and the systems that shape everyday life. In Chronically Self-Employed, she turns the field notebook inward—documenting her own attempts to rebuild a life around the body and capacity she actually has.
Read the latest dispatches
Suicide is a control thing
Depression is easy. You just cease to be a functional human being. But choosing to live each day over and over again —that's the tough part.
Disabled and unemployed. What's next?
I got laid off 2 months ago today. Here's where I'm at now!
Special health update: A month of surprises
The last few months have been surprising to say the least, from potential new diagnoses to a layoff.
Follow this column
Chronically Self-Employed is published in two places.
On LinkedIn
Follow the Chronically Self-Employed newsletter to receive personal dispatches directly through LinkedIn.
On The Chronic Worker
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Read it wherever you feel most at home—and know you can always find your way back.
Chronically Self-Employed is a personal column from The Chronic Worker. Its essays reflect the author’s individual experiences and perspective—not universal medical, financial, or professional advice.