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The Best of WordPress.com in April

The 2017 default theme is here, plus: inclusive design, editing tools, Swag Store, and must-follow sites.

You're off to a strong creative start in 2017! Here are a few recent updates and stories from the WordPress.com community in April that we wanted to share with you.

This Year's WordPress Default Theme, Twenty Seventeen, Is Now Available

"Great looking theme!" – Jason Thornberry

Independent Publisher 2 Is Here

The Independent Publisher theme has long been beloved for its simplicity and legibility, and we're happy to announce that it has been improved, ever so slightly. Read our interview with the designers, Caroline Moore and Kjell Reigstad.

Check Out the New Look, Products, and Features of the WordPress Swag Store

For a chance to be featured on the website, post WordPress swag pics to Twitter and Instagram using #WPSWAG. Use code WPSWAG for 20% off all items. (Offer ends May 12.)

Longreads Just Turned 8 Years Old. Here's What the Next Eight Years Look Like

Longreads is rapidly becoming the best place on the internet for personal essays, and there are ambitious plans to do even more. Read more on our plans, and contribute to the Longreads story fund — WordPress.com will even match your contributions.

Better conceptualizing, designing, building, and improving how to meet the needs of underserved users is a core part of how we work at WordPress.com, and that was the focus of April's Design and Exclusion (#DesignX) conference (check out the complete video and transcript at x.design.blog).

How can we help entrepreneurs working in cities around the world? That's the challenge Hajj Flemings explored in an April essay for Design.blog. He shares some of the insights which came out of the 100 Project Hackathon — a project tasked to build nine small business sites in a 48-hour period in Detroit.

Perspectives: 'But Wait, Is Your Last Name Filipino?' (Samantha Hankins)

10,000 Kilometers: Quintin Lake on Walking and Photographing Britain's Coastline

Two Aprils ago, Quintin Lake set off from St. Paul's Cathedral in London. The journey? To walk 10,000 kilometers around the coast of Britain. We caught Quintin just before he embarked on a 15-day adventure around the edge of Snowdonia, North Wales. Read about Quintin's epic walk along the sea.

Quotables: "If you really love writing, it's like eating. You can't live without doing it." – The writing life of Harvard historian and New Yorker staff writer Jill Lepore (Harvard Gazette).

Case Study: A collection of portraits, street scenes, and details from Bangkok.

Try it out: Importing Google Docs → WordPress.com.

Now following

"WordPress was the best… I'm very happy to be back." — welcome back, Leo Laporte!

Check out Amazon CTO Werner Vogels's new site, Werner.blog.

Hang out with us on Instagram and tag your 'grams with #DiscoverWP.

That's all for now!

What did you love about your own work in April? Comment with a link to a post you're proud of, or something new you learned about designing your site. Feeling motivated? Download the WordPress app on iOS and Android.

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