I think I came across the submission guidelines sometime and I was shocked, they had such an anti-policy towards people who had published pieces in The Innovation or ILLUMINATION before.

After all, writers have to start somewhere. Your first pieces of content will probably not make it into big publications like The Ascent or P.S. I love you. You have to work your way up.

But to each their own, I suppose. There are plenty of editors who don’t mind with whom you published before so you might as well stick to these publications.