Sam Dylan Finch

Full Biography

Sam Dylan Finch (he/him) is a Maltese American writer, community advocate, and coach who first gained global recognition as a blogger in 2014.

Sam is originally from the Metro Detroit area, where his multicultural, immigrant, blue collar upbringing set the stage for his later interest in community-based work.

Sam grappled with undiagnosed C-PTSD, ADHD, and anorexia from a young age. Observing the culture of silence and stigma that surrounded these struggles, he became passionate — if not outright stubborn — about mental health advocacy, especially among youth and historically marginalized groups.

While his advocacy work began as a spoken word poet at rallies and community events, he would sharpen his skills as an essayist and educator when he turned to blogging and social media to share his experience.

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Sam’s fascination with the rising tide of digital media — especially its potential for consciousness-raising and movement work — can be traced back as early as 2005.

Sam drew inspiration from early trailblazers like Josh Wolf, defending blogging as a form of independent journalism and cultural archiving with radical potential. Sam was also influenced by feminist critics and creators like Anita Sarkeesian, Black Girl Dangerous, and The Crunk Feminist Collective that brought liberation theory to the forefront.

In 2014, Sam earned two degrees in Anthropology and Women’s & Gender Studies, as well as a certificate in Writing in the Public Sphere and minor in History, from the University of Michigan-Dearborn.

Believing that storytelling was a powerful vehicle for social change, he honed in on an opportunity: To leverage digital media to crack open the conversation about mental health and its connection to political systems, combining his academic background with his lived experience.

This led Sam to launch his blog, Let’s Queer Things Up!, to elevate conversations about mental health in the LGBTQIA+ community, and to share his personal journey as a queer, transgender man.

Sam had no idea this would catapult him into the public eye, when the blog amassed more than six million readers within its first three months.

His unflinching honesty and compassionate voice left a lasting impression, garnering international press and applause by major organizations like The Trevor Project and PFLAG National as a critical educational resource.

His meteoric rise also led to contributing roles at Everyday Feminism and The Body Is Not An Apology, positioning him not just as an independent blogger, but as a cultural collaborator.

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Sam has since worked as a freelance journalist, editor, digital strategist, and content marketer for mission-driven organizations, non-profits, and publications.

His recent work embraces the body as a potent site of transformation, while untangling themes like grief, sovereignty, spirituality, generational trauma, and love.

With more than a decade of advocacy under his belt, Sam is a trusted voice and community leader. His approach as a storyteller, and his ability to articulate hard truths with unabashed hope, have made him a deeply respected and sought after writer and speaker.

As a coach, Sam supports creative and divergent humans who want to strengthen their connection to their most courageous selves. His work centers aliveness, joy, compassion, and curiosity to shift communities out of survival mode and into a more expansive future.

In 2025, Sam continues to write, listen, laugh, learn, question, and preach, with his online work often feeling like, as one follower put it, “the kind of pep talk that wakes up your soul.”

He strives to model the kind of care, self-reflection, courage, and honesty that our collective future asks of us. But with a little bit of mischief, too — he promises he’s even weirder than his online persona would suggest.