(To my paid subscribers—in case you missed it—don’t worry, I paused payments for 2 weeks.)

I missed you, so much has happened. I took a two-week hiatus to finish my book, and YAY, I finished! It feels slightly surreal and also like I should be handed a tiny trophy.

It was my dad’s one-year death anniversary and I’m still not sure what the appropriate verb is for something like that because celebrated feels wrong, commemorated feels very official, but I guess cried is probably the most accurate?

I got my annual mole check and there really is nothing quite like lying nearly naked under fluorescent lighting while a doctor you’ve known for approximately four minutes inspects your entire body.

I cried like a baby over not being able to go with my family to Mexico on vacation. And then I sent my kids back to school—which would already be emotional enough, except somehow I now have a high schooler and a middle schooler.

And I think that’s pretty much everything, give or take a minor emotional crisis.

Ya I have that.

Saw a viral clip of Hayden Panettiere saying, “Beauty is an opinion not a fact,” and I thought it was a beautiful reminder.

Via IG: quinlanwalther

“Life doesn’t remove what isn’t for you, it just lets it exhaust you over and over and over again until you choose differently.”

I was reading Good Vibes, Good Life by Vex King and was reminded of this Henry Ford quote:

“Whether you think you can, or think you can’t, you are right.”

I know this concept isn’t groundbreaking, but I always need the reminder. Especially when life feels a little heavier than usual, it’s so easy to get in your head and forget what’s actually possible.

Britt-Marie Was Here: Really enjoyed this book—and loved Britt-Marie’s character. I laughed out loud a few times. It’s about a woman in her 60s who leaves her cheating husband and starts over in a small town, where she rediscovers herself, finds new friendships, and learns to build a life of her own.

Mad Mabel: I could not put this down. It’s a witty mystery, but also devastating and heartwarming—you really feel all the emotions. It’s about Mabel, an 81-year-old woman whose past comes back to haunt her when her neighbor is found dead. I fell in love with her and was so sad for the book to end. I wanted her to be my friend. The ending tore my heart out a little. This was a 5-star read for me, and I’m going to be thinking about it for a while.

Steel Magnolias: I watched this for the first time this week because of Dolly’s passing (I know, I know—I can’t believe it took me this long), and it was so beautiful and heart-wrenching.

There are many things I would recommend for personal growth: journaling, therapy, traveling, and reading books written by dead people who seem to have figured everything out.

I would not, however, recommend all those moments when life looked me directly in the eyes, declared it a character-building exercise, and then violently threw a chair at my head.

And yet, if someone offered to hand me a magic eraser to delete all the worst things that ever happened to me, I’d probably stare at the eraser for a very long time.

When I posted the question on Instagram—if you could erase the worst things that ever happened to you, knowing you’d also erase the person they made you, would you?—I heard stories that ranged from the grief of losing a loved one to abuse and life-altering health diagnoses, to things so horrific that calling them ‘life lessons’ would feel almost insulting.

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YAY we’re finally in August—46 days until this hellscape of a season ends.

I’ve been seeing Halloween and Christmas decor online for a month now, and I have very conflicting feelings. Part of me feels like it’s way too soon because I love when things happen in their proper time and I want each season to have its moment. But the ber-month lover in me feels like an old friend just walked through the door, and who am I not to let her in?

Either way, the dopamine hit I’m getting from the things currently in my cart is strong enough to override the reality that I am in fact still sweating.

I can’t believe I’ve been doing this for free.

“Trying to prove your worth to other people is a tried and true way to feel worthless.”

-Via IG: the_outdoor_therapist

“Grace is for mistakes not for patterns.”

-Via IG: kammy_brod

”Every time you replace ‘this is overwhelming’ with ‘what’s the first step’ you shift your brain activity from the amygdala (fear) to the prefrontal cortex (problem solving.”

-Via IG: emmagoizman

How Lucky Am I: One of you recommended this and I loved it. It’s such a beautiful and giftable book w/ life lessons.

Furious: Still watching this from last week—I wish they’d release more episodes! It's about a female serial killer who targets rich men involved in the trafficking and exploitation of underage girls.

House of Stassi: I binged this. If you’re a Bravo lover like me, you probably remember Stassi from Vanderpump Rules. I was hoping she had grown and learned from her past, but I still enjoyed the show. Also, I haven’t seen anyone mention this, but the background of her home was so beautiful that I kept wishing they’d give us a full tour. The visuals, fonts, and music choices were all done so well.

The Lindsay Clancy trial has been all over my feed this week, and despite not actually watching the trial itself, the clips, commentary, and discourse have somehow managed to put me in a chokehold.

If you haven’t read about it, the case is about a mom accused of killing her three kids while experiencing postpartum psychosis, which I just learned is a rare psychiatric emergency that can completely distort someone’s sense of reality.

I knew postpartum depression and the “baby blues” existed, but I had never heard of postpartum psychosis. And I guess what I can’t stop thinking about isn’t just how heartbreaking this case is, but all the commentary online.

I was reading things like, “I don’t care what she was going through,” and “There’s no excuse,” or “How could a mother ever do that?”

I ended up posting about it on Instagram, and my DMs filled up. But there was one message I haven't been able to stop thinking about.

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Also, why does July feel like the longest month in existence?

I just learned that Mercury was in retrograde for most of the month. I’m not entirely sure what that means, but it feels very much like one of those horoscope blurbs you used to read in Seventeen magazine where you’d think this is probably ridiculous, but also secretly wonder if it explained why everything was going wrong. Either way, I’m happy to report it’s officially over.

I love that a student-led activist group ended this.

This guy, Sean Johnson (@intentionally_ on IG), shared advice he got from his roommate in college. He was working at a restaurant, and at the end of every shift, employees were supposed to marry the ketchups—basically take two bottles and combine them into one. There was one employee who would skip it, and it drove him crazy. One night after work, he came home venting to his roommate, and after a few minutes of listening to him rant, his roommate looked at him and said, “Dude, you need a bigger world.”

He talks about remembering it years later when his wife was on the condo board at their old place and he saw people getting worked up over silly things. He remembered it during moments of office politics, and now when he sees people arguing online over things that feel trivial, he comes back to the reminder that if something so insignificant is consuming so much of your energy, maybe you need a bigger world.

I cannot stop thinking about this. LOVED it.

Love, love, lovvvvveeeed the episode of Keke Palmer’s podcast with Oprah on it. A few things I wrote down:

-“I’m not BY myself, I’m WITH myself.”

-When talking about people you shed when you grow, “Those are the people who couldn’t handle the oxygen. They couldn’t handle the climb. You cannot bring everybody along with you.”

-”It is a violent act against yourself to allow other people in your life to diminish you and to not lift you and exalt you.”

There so many other insightful and beautiful moments, I loved every minute of it. Highly recommend listening.

Oprah on Baby, this is Keke Palmer podcast (07/21/26): This is the podcast I mentioned above. Highly recommend.

Furious: Just started this—it's good. It's about a female serial killer who targets rich men involved in the trafficking and exploitation of underage girls.

Four Thousand Weeks: Finished this book from last week and I think everyone should read this—I know it looks like a productivity book but it’s not. Like, at all. I cannot stop thinking about it. It’s really insightful and made me rethink how I spend my time and my life. Great stories, research, and anecdotes.

I was doomscrolling earlier this week and came across a video that started with, “You don’t want new things, you want the wanting.”

And I was like, okayyyy, you have my attention.

He then pans to comedian Kanan Gill who says, “Very exciting to get stuff. But as soon as you get stuff, you just have it.” He always gets the new iPhone, but once it arrives, he realizes that he simply… just has an iPhone. “It’s got 4K 120fps,” he says, “ugh, but I’m still me.”

Which feels like the entire human experience condensed into an Apple Store receipt.

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After a few more increasingly bizarre exchanges, we met somewhere in the middle: a $10 bill, a very awkward goodbye, and me driving away in a panic.

In other news, my son turns 15 on Sunday. FIFTEEN. Like, he can literally drive this year. I swear to God, I was just driving him home from the hospital yesterday. There’s something deeply bittersweet about watching your kids grow older. You get to discover and appreciate new sides of them, while also grieving the little versions of them you’ll never get to experience again.

If anyone needs me I’ll be looking at old pictures and crying all weekend.

Why do I find this so fascinating?

A girl on TikTok (@luvvia35) said she was comparing herself to her ex’s new girlfriend, saying she was better, prettier, etc. I loved the screenshot of the text she shared from her sister:

“You’re looking at another woman through the eyes of your insecurity. You don’t actually know her, but you’ve already decided she’s better than you because a man chose her. His choice doesn’t create her value, and it never took away yours. Stop making yourself smaller just because someone failed to make you feel chosen.”

I don’t even know who I am anymore with all these sports references lately, but I saw a girl on IG (@tarynarnoldscott) use an analogy to describe how important the people around you are and I had to share.

So you know how home teams win more often? Across pretty much every sport, consistently. People assumed it was because of logistics—travel fatigue, unfamiliar stadiums, different weather, all of that. But then COVID happened, and games were played without fans and the home-field advantage disappeared.

Researchers found that it wasn’t the location itself that mattered. It was the belief that people were there for you—actively and loudly cheering you on. And they found the opposite was also true: when the crowd boos, performance drops.

And as the girl in the video points out, I feel like that’s such a powerful reminder of how much the people around us matter.

A Toxic Love Story: This was wild. I don’t want to say too much and give it away, but it’s a true crime story about a cyberstalking case.

Four Thousand Weeks: I know this looks like a “how-to” book, but I found it incredibly thought-provoking. I’m only halfway through, but it’s much more of a philosophical reflection on time, ambition, and the reality that our lives are short.

I saw a sentence on Substack this week that I cannot stop thinking about:

“Go be your favorite self.”

Not your best self. Your favorite self.

Which felt oddly timed because I had JUST talked to my therapist about something similar. Except my version of it involved a movie because I am incapable of explaining a human experience without a cinematic reference.

There's a scene in Pretty Woman where Richard Gere asks Julia Roberts, "What's your name?" and she answers, "What do you want it to be?"

I realize this was probably meant to be cute and flirty, but to me it sounded like someone who had learned to answer with the version of herself that was well-received.

Which, if we’re going back to the Substack quote, would arguably be your best self? Right? Or...I don’t know. Is it?

The more I thought about it, the more I wondered if my happiest self was actually my favorite self. Because at first, I assumed they were the same thing. But when I looked back at the years I’d describe as my happiest, I wasn’t sure that was the version of myself I liked the most.

And that made my brain hurt.

So naturally, I put up a poll on Instagram, and the results were weirdly fascinating.

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Reporting live from the trenches. This week has been a doozy

It started with a few itchy bites that I blamed on psoriasis. Then the internet convinced me I had carpet beetles. Then I found what I can only describe as tiny sesame seeds on my bed, which I was informed were, in fact, tapeworm segments that had exited my cat through her butt.

(I know. I’m also processing.)

Turns out, tapeworm segments usually mean a cat has eaten an infected flea. Which means my cat had fleas. Which means those itchy bites were most likely fleas too.

I’ve vacuumed more this week than I have in the last year, washed everything I own, become intimately familiar with insect life cycles against my will, and now every time I feel an itch I’m like, “Is this new or…?”

To keep things interesting, I also started hormone therapy this week, so I’ve been dealing with flu-like symptoms while my body adjusts. I am tired. My house is spotless. And I no longer trust my cat. But hey, how’s everyone else’s week going?

How delightful.

LOVED this quote I read on IG (via kendall_bousquet):

“Reading books is so profound because it denies you the ability to speak when confronted with an idea. You must listen. It isn’t a conversation. Sometimes it shouldn’t be a conversation. Sometimes we should listen.”

Do you guys remember the “Sunscreen” song from 1999? I listened to it again this week—highly recommend.

From the book, Make Believe by Victoria Hutchins:

You haven’t forgotten how to love your life. Even if you don’t remember the sound of your real laugh, and all you want is to be left alone, or you can’t remember the last time you had a dream (though all you do is sleep), I promise—you haven’t forgotten how to love your life.

Think of it like this: joy is a stray. She won’t let you put a collar on her, and she doesn’t come when she’s called, but she’s never far. She’s easy to lose and hard to kill.

Brene Brown on What Now? podcast (06/03/26): Really enjoyed this conversation—they talk about everything from human connection, modern media, parasocial relationships, community, and belonging to so much more. I especially loved how they framed sports as a form of community, especially as someone who's not really into sports.

Grey’s Anatomy: Started this for the first time—I know, I knowww I’m late—and loving it.

I’ve been wanting to write about this week’s topic for a long time. Like, a long time. The kind of long where you draft it in your head while brushing your teeth, rewrite it while driving, and then decide, “Actually, maybe the world can wait because I do enjoy having people think I’m pleasant.”

Ironically (or maybe not ironically at all), the very first DM I received yesterday after posting about this topic perfectly captured why I’ve avoided writing it for so long.

It said, and I quote:

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Skipped last week's newsletter because of the holiday, and yet still ended up (unsurprisingly) working all weekend. My boss—me—is relentless.

Have you guys been watching the World Cup? I am, by every measurable standard, not a sports fan. And yet after that heated Egypt–Argentina game, I found myself pacing, yelling at the TV, and experiencing the kind of stress response usually reserved for job interviews and medical test results.

I have learned a lot in a very short amount of time—unfortunately, very little of it has to do with how the game is actually played. In no particular order, here are the things I have learned:

• I still don't know what offside is. I have had it explained to me multiple times, and every explanation somehow makes me understand it less.

• FIFA is where soccer, geopolitics, and a Netflix documentary all meet.

• Mbappe is pronounced correctly only after you embarrass yourself enough times.

• Erling Haaland is my favorite player, despite the fact that I learned he existed roughly 72 hours ago.

• Every referee decision creates 10,000 people online who suddenly have a law degree in soccer.

• A single goal can make a country collectively lose its mind.

But most importantly, I now understand why my son can spend two hours watching people talk about a game that already happened.

Okay, okay, okay! Last newsletter I casually floated the idea of putting the weekly fun fact on a little “vacation,” and that suggestion was met with a very firm: “Absolutely not.”

Your feedback has been received, reviewed, and (most importantly) obeyed. The fun fact is staying—because who am I to stand between you and your weekly dose of useless knowledge?

Okay but can we all agree that this is absolutely diabolical.

I saw a clip of Alex Cooper (from the podcast Call Her Daddy) where she starts by asking, “Why is it so cool to act like you don’t care? … like you didn’t even try?” She then goes on to talk about the myth of effortlessness.

The video landed on my FYP at the perfect time because I had been especially hard on myself this week for how long things take me. Writing for my book, putting together this newsletter, taking photos, styling a room—somehow everything becomes a much bigger production than I expect it to be.

When I posted how long it takes for me to do certain things over the weekend, a few well-intentioned people responded with “work smarter” or “hire someone”—and I get it, I really do. There is definitely a place for making things easier on yourself. But I think there’s also a difference between removing unnecessary friction and speed-running your way through the parts you actually care about.

And seeing that video on my FYP felt like a good reminder that there’s a difference between struggling because you’re forcing yourself to be perfect and taking time because you’re honoring something you deeply care about.

I just know someone needed to hear that too.

Dr. Rachel Rubin on DOAC podcast (06/21/26): This was both fascinating and enraging. She talks about hormones, women’s sexual health, menopause etc.

Love & Other Drugs: I haven’t seen this movie since it came out in 2010, and it held up really well. It’s about a pharma rep who meets a woman with early-onset Parkinson’s. Loved it—it was funny, heartbreaking, and tender.

Obsession: Okay, this was worth the hype if you like horror movies. It’s about a guy who makes a wish for a girl to love him more than anyone else, and things turn dark really fast. Acting was phenomenal.

For the last few years, I have been participating in a very expensive, very exhausting game of Guess What's Wrong With Me? and, unfortunately, the prize has been more appointments.

Before every doctor visit, I'd spend hours preparing. I'd make symptom timelines, compare notes, rehearse how to explain everything without sounding dramatic, and mentally prepare for follow-up questions like I was about to testify before Congress.

Then I'd walk into the appointment and say the same thing I've been saying for years: “I’m exhausted all the time. I feel like I’m going to pass out. I’m lightheaded. Every time I get sick, it lasts for what feels like forever.”

And every time I went, the response was the same:

“Drink more water.”
“Exercise.”
“Get better sleep.”
“Reduce stress.”

Amazing. Groundbreaking. Next time I’ll try drinking water and doing squats while I’m fainting onto the floor.

Eventually, the list expanded. And because “Respectfully, have you considered this may all be in your head?” isn’t exactly the kind of thing doctors are supposed to say out loud, it got translated into something more professional: maybe it was anxiety. Maybe it was depression. Maybe my body wasn’t sending me warning signs—it was just being dramatic for attention.

And after enough rounds of this, you start wondering if the problem is your symptoms or your audacity for continuing to mention them. After all, your labs are normal. Your tests look fine. Clearly, the only abnormal thing here is your refusal to stop asking questions.

Every time I’ve shared pieces of this story online, my inbox turns into a collection of women saying some version of, “Wait… me too.”

The details are different. The symptoms are different. The diagnoses are different. But the pattern is painfully familiar.

Because eventually, after enough doctors tell you everything looks normal, you start wondering if maybe the problem isn’t your symptoms. Maybe it’s you.

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I’m beyond excited (against my will) for those of you who thrive during the season of boob sweat, mosquitoes, and an endless calendar of activities that somehow qualify as "relaxing."

For my fall lovers, stay strong.

The next few months will test us. People will insist that 92 degrees is "actually not that bad." Every social event will somehow involve standing outside. And we’ll be expected to pretend that sweating through our clothes is a normal and enjoyable human experience.

But our time will come.

The leaves will return. The mosquitoes will return to hell where they belong. Candles will reclaim their rightful place in society. We will once again wear sweaters. Trader Joe's will release seventeen unnecessary pumpkin products. We will buy twelve of them. Balance will be restored.

Until then, remain vigilant. Stay hydrated. Avoid eye contact with anyone who says, “It’s a dry heat.” And remember: every pumpkin spice season begins with surviving one unnecessarily enthusiastic summer.

We’re in this together.

***For years you’ve loved this section, and I’ve loved that you’ve loved it. But I’d like to (even if just temporarily) switch things up and try something new. I’ve got a few ideas in mind, but if you have suggestions—or feel strongly enough to passionately protest me pausing this—feel free to reply to this email.

“Your next move matters more than your last mistake.”

-Via IG: wethinkdeeply

From the book, Make Believe by Victoria Hutchins:

If I spend less time sitting in the sun and more time sitting at my desk, maybe I could really make something of myself.

If I read fewer romance novels and more self-help books, maybe I could find the formula to unlock the life of my dreams.

If I spent less money on lavender lattes and put more money in the bank, maybe someday I could afford a big house, with a wraparound porch.

Where I could sit in the sun. Read a romance novel. Have a lavender latte.

Stumbled upon this thread about people who took gummies and I was wheezing.

STRONG RECOMMENDATIONS THIS WEEK.

Make Believe: This was one of the most beautiful books I’ve read in a long time (I cried many times). I highly recommend a physical copy—it’s one of those books you’ll want to earmark. And while you don’t need to be going through a difficult time to read this, if you are, it is especially delightful. It’s made up of a million short notes. It felt like a warm hug—so inspiring and would make a great gift.

I Will Find You: Holy shit, this was so good. It’s about a man who goes to prison for killing his son but then thinks he may still be alive. My jaw was on the floor from the beginning all the way to the last episode. It’s one of those shows with a million twists, and every time an episode ends, you cannot wait to see what happens next. 5 stars. No notes.

If giving advice were an Olympic sport, I would qualify easily. I can sound like a wise, emotionally evolved person who has read all the right books and made all the right mistakes.

And yet, when it comes to applying that same advice to my own life, I become suspiciously incompetent. I am, in essence, a professional problem solver with a strong aversion to solving my own problems.

Which is why I’ve compiled a list of the things keeping my therapist in business—for your consumption.

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She’s been ordering things left and right like she’s running a one-kid distribution center, and I’ve started witnessing something deeply familiar: a tiny mirror of myself. Because now every time a delivery truck rolls down the street, she lights up and sprints to the window with the hopeful intensity of someone who is 90% sure this is the one.

In other news, my 14-year-old son took his first solo plane ride, and I was not okay. I think I texted him about 50 times asking if he was comfortable, nervous, worried, hungry, or somehow simultaneously all of the above, while internally running through 47 possible scenarios—most of them completely unnecessary and none of them helpful.

Meanwhile, he handled it like just another Tuesday at 30,000 feet, arriving completely fine, calm, and very much not in need of my ongoing commentary from the ground.

Oh okay

Jonathan Haidt started his NYU commencement saying, “Treasure your attention,” which feels like a fortune-cookie cliche until you remember we live in an age where every app is competing for a slice of our brains.

He continues, “It sounds simple, but paying attention is in fact, one of the most challenging and meaningful things you can do. Because what you pay attention to shapes what you care about. And what you care about shapes what you become.”

And goes on to talk about how so many powerful people and companies are competing to take that choice away from us and capture our attention. But attention isn’t just wandering off on its own—it’s being chased. Every app, platform, and notification is competing for a piece of it, not because they’ve earned it, but because they can take it.

And on a related note…

Dr. Judith Joseph was on The Dr. Hyman Show talking about a study where adults had their smartphones taken away and were given flip phones for a month—so they could text and call, but not access the internet or social media.

What they found was that happiness scores went up as much as if they’d been treated with an antidepressant. People slept better, socialized more, spent more time in nature, and even reported enjoying food more instead of eating it while staring at a screen.

Was reading an old newsletter from two years ago and found this gem of community responses of things kids say.

Maternal Instinct: This was one of the most horrifying crime documentaries I’ve ever watched—my jaw was on the floor at the end. And even more horrifying is the title because what do you mean maternal instinct??

Emilie Kiser on Jay Shetty’s podcast (06/17): This was a heartbreakingly beautiful episode about grief and loss. I really loved the way she spoke about the grace she extended toward her husband, and how she held onto empathy and understanding even in something so devastating. I also really connected with her thoughts on letting go of other people’s opinions and finding peace in the fact that people who don’t know your life will never fully understand it.

Everyone keeps saying skinny is back. As though thinness packed up its tiny little suitcase in 2016, spent a few years in exile while we celebrated body positivity, and has now triumphantly returned to reclaim its throne.

Thin is back. Heroin chic is back. Size zero is back.

Back, back, back.

According to the internet, everyone is shrinking. Celebrities. Influencers. Entire awards-show red carpets. And yet I’m not convinced what we’re witnessing is the return of a beauty standard.

I wonder if we’re witnessing the revelation of one.

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My son just graduated middle school and is somehow heading to high school—a fact that seems mathematically impossible since I was approximately 27 years old five minutes ago.

Meanwhile, my younger daughter has been enthusiastically informing us that she wants clothes "from the 2,000s," as if she's a fashion historian researching a long-lost civilization. She says it with the detached fascination of someone studying corsets or powdered wigs.

The 2000s.

The decade I still occasionally refer to as “a few years ago.”

I am now living with both a high schooler and a tiny vintage fashion enthusiast, neither of whom seems remotely concerned about the emotional impact this is having on me.

Well that’s exciting

I saw a post from wethinkdeeply on Instagram and saved three of the questions:

Is it really your “dream body” if it’s a nightmare to maintain? Is it really your “dream job” if you dread every Monday morning? Is it really your “dream future” if you would hate the person you have to become to live it?

I was telling my therapist that I feel like I’m never going to get better and she shared this snippet from the book, "Think and Grow Rich" by Napolean Hill that I loved:

"A thought thus ‘magnetized’ with emotion may be compared to a seed which, when planted in fertile soil, germinates, grows, and multiplies itself over and over again, until that which was originally one small seed, becomes countless millions of seeds of the same brand."

I loved it because it gave such a powerful visual of what our thoughts are doing behind the scenes. I pictured a garden growing and spreading from just one thought—and of course this works for positive thoughts too.

Off Campus: Finally finished this and loved loved loved it.

The Edge: Continuing my kick of rewatching old 90’s movies, watched this with my son over the weekend and it definitely holds up. We both loved it.

I didn’t expect Hunter Biden to be the most compelling person on the internet this week.

Not because of the politics. Not because of the scandals. And not because watching him verbally body-slam random trolls is objectively entertaining.

Yet somehow, amid the screenshots, viral clapbacks, and predictable outrage cycles, he’s getting people who disagree on almost everything to connect over something deeply human:

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I took a sleep gummy with THC and quickly rediscovered why I had previously placed it on my personal list of things I would never do again.

Big mistake. HUGE.

I woke up in a panic, woke my husband up, and informed him of the devastating news that I had gone deaf. My life flashed before my eyes, and I became deeply sad about all the sounds I would never hear again, like music, laughter, and the sound of the delivery truck dropping off my packages.

My husband gently told me to go back to sleep, in the tone of someone carefully avoiding the words “you are losing your mind over a tiny gummy.”

I don’t recall the remainder of the evening with any clarity. I do, however, remember waking up the next morning with my hearing inexplicably intact.

Needless to say, I think that is the last THC gummy I’ll ever have in my life.

Oh but it’s not just monkeys now is it

I saw a post from alexandrahayesrobinson on Instagram about how, if her friends apologize for something ridiculous, she says, “Apology rejected.”

So for example, things like “I’m sorry I’m a bummer right now,” “sorry I’m being kind of quiet today,” “sorry I’m not very fun today,” or “sorry I’m just feeling a little off,” she’ll say, “Apology rejected.”

Love that so much, will be using it from this day forward.

I watched James Valentine’s son’s funeral speech—who I just learned is an Australian musician and radio host—and from what his son said, he sounds like an incredible human.

The speech is 13 minutes long and worth Googling and listening to, but I wanted to share what stuck with me below.

He started the speech with a cliché idea we’ve all heard—that we often treat happiness as an end goal—but I loved the way he framed it. It especially made me think about how I ask kids this question.

“‘How do you want to live?’ My dad figured out how to ask us this question, rather than, ‘What do you want to be?’ The first question suggests a way of living that can be fast or slow, rich or poor, city or country. It also implies doing it now. The second question ignores all the stuff that matters and focuses on some end point. Happiness will be yours when you reach it, but you never do. The person who aspires is not the person who attains.”

Off Campus: I just finished episode 5 (from this show I shared last week) and really loving this show—please no spoilers!

Gianmarco Soresi: If you like stand-up comedy, he has a special called Thief of Joy on YouTube that I enjoyed.

Last week, I called one of my close friends of more than a decade and told her I wasn't sure I could make it to her wedding.

I had agonized over that phone call for weeks. Every few days, I’d convince myself I’d figured it out. I’d go. Obviously I’d go. Then I'd wake up the next morning and feel completely incapable of it.

Every explanation I came up with sounded like either an exaggeration or an excuse, which was unfortunate because it happened to be neither.

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Please, have a seat.

Earlier this week, I was alone in the kitchen, giving a Grammy-worthy performance of “Shaking That Ass” when my daughter walked in. Naturally, I smiled. She stared at me like someone witnessing public indecency.

I continued dancing and asked if she knew how to shake her booty too. She looked me dead in the soul and muttered, “No, but clearly neither do you.” And then proceeded to walk away with the devastating calm of someone aware they’d just delivered a fatal blow.

I don’t know what hurt more, the comment or the accuracy.

Anyway, so how’s everyone else’s week going?

Smiles in “annoying morning person.”

I’ve seen a few people post: to conduct an orchestra, you must turn your back on the audience, which I’ve since Googled and learned that the original quote was, “A man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the crowd,” by Max Lucado.

I don’t know if it’s because I’m working on this in therapy, or because my job involves creating things and sending them out into the world, but this feels like such a beautiful metaphor for confidence and trusting yourself.

From the book, Love For Imperfect Things:

"What distresses us is less the circumstances we find ourselves in, and more the energy we spend in resisting them."

Off Campus: The internet has been raving about this so of course I had to watch. Saw the first episode last night—a little cheesy but cute.

The Pursuit of Happyness: Saw this 20 years ago and watched it again with my kids—loved it. Will Smith really is such a great actor.

The fact that I recently brought a designer’s opinions about coasters into therapy should probably concern me more than it does, but I’ll get to that emotional spiral in a minute.

But first, some context.

I was scrolling Instagram, minding my own damn business, when an interior designer popped up on my feed and the first words out of her mouth were, “I HATE COASTERS, because it suggests you have to be careful.”

Which was shocking because I had previously understood a coaster to be a small circular object designed to absorb condensation and not a psychological weapon.

She went on to explain that she has boys and she doesn’t want to “have rooms where you can’t go in there,” and “can you imagine my kids growing up and saying, ‘my mother didn’t let me do this because of the furniture’?”

At this point, I became genuinely confused about what people think a coaster is.

Because in my experience, using a coaster has never prevented anyone from entering a room, sitting on a couch, expressing emotion, or reaching their full human potential. Nobody has ever arrived at my house and whispered, “I wanted to relax, but then I saw the West Elm cork round and knew this home was governed by fear.”

Naturally, like any mildly nosy but spiritually curious person with access to Instagram Stories, I did what I always do: I immediately turned this into a public survey.

I asked my community a few extremely serious, academically rigorous questions like:

What house rule have you had that someone else thought was ridiculous?
What makes you feel comfortable and relaxed in someone else’s home?
What makes you feel uncomfortable, or like a home is rigid?

And it became a very heated debate between the “careful” crowd and the “relaxed” crowd, who, as it turns out, have very different ideas of what a home is supposed to feel like.

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I skipped last week’s newsletter because May is one of those rare months with five Fridays, and I took the opportunity to take a week off. I realize now that many of you don’t follow me on Instagram, so you may have missed that announcement.

As a side note, I didn’t realize Memorial Day was this upcoming Monday until last night, which is not great news for my relationship with time. How is this month already basically gone? My kids are out of school next month and we’re just speedrunning into summer, which means there’s only one more hurdle between us and the best season of the year—fall.

YAY.

Interesting. And they’re the happiest country too.

Was watching an interview with Anne Hathaway where she was asked how she stays grounded in busy seasons, and she said she feels so lucky and added, “When I’m tired, I just ask myself if I love the reason I’m tired.”

I love that. I’m going to ask myself that every time life gets busy.

Loved this TT video that came across my fyp from creator Milly Goldsmith. She was reframing perspective and said:

“Did I really lose a friend or did I just complete a friendship? Did I change or did I just become more honest? Did I ruin it or did I just stop forcing it? Did I fail or did I just pay what I know now?”

And goes on to stay just because things or people change doesn’t mean they aren’t meant to and that felt like a good reminder.

I saw a long post (via IG: prestonrack) where a woman tells her therapist she feels like she always shows up for people, but they don’t show up for her in the same way. Her therapist asked her: “Are you meeting people where they’re at, or where you’re at?” and I thought that was such a good question.

Hayden Panettiere on Jay Shetty’s podcast (05/11/26): Enjoyed this interview, but it was heartbreaking. Hayden discussed everything from anxiety and postpartum depression to abuse, relationships, and everything in between.

Funny AF: If you like stand-up comedy, you’ll enjoy this. It features a group of comedians competing for a Netflix special.

I watched a video the other day of a woman making tea. Which I realize sounds like the beginning of a very slow documentary, but stay with me.

She was on her lunch break, probably trying to reclaim a small piece of humanity between emails and meetings, and she goes to make herself a cup of tea. Except instead of a kettle, a mug, and the gentle existential pause of waiting for water to boil, there’s a machine. A tea machine. She presses a button and—boom!—tea.

What stuck with me wasn’t the machine doing its little futuristic miracle, it was her reaction.

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Happy Friday!

Just want to say Happy Mother’s Day to everyone celebrating Sunday—whether you’re being celebrated, doing the celebrating, or quietly doing both while reheating your coffee for the third time.

I know that day can be hard for so many—if that’s you, I’m sending you love, softness, and maybe a snack you didn’t have to prepare yourself.

Actress Cleo Rocos wrote about it in her memoir.

LOVED LOVED LOVED this NY Times article from 2017 called (It’s Great To) Suck at Something by Karen Rinaldi.

It’s about a woman who’s been surfing for years and says she’s still not very good at it—which, oddly enough, she considers freeing. The second you stop trying to be good, you stop living in your head and start actually being in the moment. There’s something powerful about staying a beginner, it cracks open perfectionism and makes room for curiosity, play, and that childlike “whoa, I’m doing a thing” feeling.

She believes that being persistently terrible at something is a masterclass in humility. After enough wipeouts, you start to realize everything is harder than it looks, which makes you a little kinder to yourself—and everyone else fumbling through life too. Her philosophy is: ditch the need to look impressive, embrace looking slightly unhinged, and you might end up more present, more open-hearted, and having way more fun than you planned.

One Hour Photo: I’m on an old-movie streak lately, and I don’t hate it. My daughter likes Robin Williams, and we felt like watching a thriller, so this oldie but goodie held up well.

How to Hold a Cockroach: Loved this. It was repetitive but beautiful and thought-provoking—especially because it gets you thinking about where our beliefs come from and how they’re formed. Definitely a giftable book for older kids or adults.

I had a strange out-of-body experience last month in a mall dressing room, which is not where I expected to confront generational identity shifts, but life rarely respects narrative structure.

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Happy May 1st! The weather in LA has been showing off lately. After that oddly hot winter, these sunny, breezy 60-degree days feel like the universe correcting itself.

In more exciting news, after a dramatic pile-up of deadlines, I finally gave myself permission to fully collapse for a day. I was in peak “do not perceive me” mode—horizontal on the couch, spiritually unavailable, and deeply committed to my latest Bravo obsession.

It was, frankly, a masterpiece of rest. The only downside is that it pushed today’s newsletter into the “fashionably late” category. My apologies—I’ll try to return to civilization on schedule next week.

Violently humbled.

Saw a tweet from a fitness instructor named Ben Barker that I loved and wrote down. He said he stopped telling his kids to “have a good day” and instead started telling them to “make it a good day.”

Such a good shift in perspective—not just for parents. I’m definitely stealing this.

“Life shrinks or expands according to one’s courage.” —Anaïs Nin

Ugh, felt that.

Dug this out of an old newsletter:

On people pleasing, Oprah said she always thinks about her intention: “If my intention is to serve the other person in making them think I’m a nice person or to allow them to feel better about me, then I don’t do it. Because that’s just your ego wanting yourself to be fed.”

Love Life: I originally came across this book after seeing a clip of the author talking about self-love, which got me curious enough to look it up. It’s mostly aimed at people who are dating, but I still found a lot of useful stuff in there about emotional patterns in relationships, communication, self-worth, and habits.

I am Sam: This was one of the most heartbreakingly beautiful movies I’ve seen in a long time. I cried several times. I realize I’m very late to this, as it’s quite old, but it was my first time watching it because my daughter asked to see it and we both loved it.

I recently told three different friends, at three different times, what I thought was a very fresh realization about a friendship I had once considered one of my closest.

Each time, they responded with the same energy: We know. We’ve known. Are you just arriving at this now?

Which is a humbling way to realize that other people often see things in real time that you only understand in hindsight.

So I did what I usually do when I can’t quite let a thought stay contained in my head: I took it to Instagram. I posted a simple question: do we outgrow people, or do we outgrow how we interpret them?

The responses came quickly. I read them one after another, and somewhere in that pile of messages, the question stopped being theoretical and started feeling uncomfortably personal.

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My daughter turned 12 this week and, right on schedule, I’ve become a walking cliché. She’s fully stepped into her role as president of Trends, Vibes, and Things We Don’t Do, Mom, and while she’d never actually call me uncool, her tone suggests I should already know.

She chose shopping for her birthday—because obviously the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree—and after every suggestion from me or my mom, she’d look at us like we were absolutely precious for thinking we had a say.

At one point we were debating whether Hollister and Abercrombie were the same vibe, and I—confidently, foolishly—suggested doing a poll because I absolutely thought they were. She looked at me and said, “Oh, to all your Facebook moms?”

I still have not recovered. I’m writing this from the clearance section where I belong.

Interesting and relevant for this week’s deep dive topic.

I saw a clip from The Drew Barrymore Show when Matthew Hussey was on, and I loved what he said:

“Imagine for a moment, at the beginning of your life, you were given a human and you were told you have one job for the rest of your life: you have to take care of this human. Most of us have not realized that that’s our job. We finish our parenting where we were raised by somebody else; we go out in the world and we start looking for someone else to show up for us. But we are our human. The only person who’s truly here to take care of me is me. She’s in my custody.

And when you wake up in the morning and you say: what would I do today if I was taking care of my human? The answer is completely different to what we do most days when we beat ourself up, when we put ourself around toxic people, and this is the big mistake: loving ourselves isn’t a feeling, it’s an approach. It’s a job. You don’t even have to like yourself today to love yourself. Liking yourself can come later with all of the ways you make yourself proud and all of the things you do. Loving yourself today is your job. And we have to start taking that job seriously because we are our human.”

No reading or watching this week. I’ve somehow reached a new level of being behind—not on work or chores, but on the entertainment I voluntarily choose.

Ask me

It’s completely anonymous, ask me anything you want advice on and I’ll write about it once a month.

I didn’t expect a teen rom-com, an internet feud, and something my daughter said to me this week to be telling the same story about women—but here we are.

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Happy post Tax season everyone! WE MADE IT. lol.

Ok, but the real exciting news, in case you missed it on Instagram, is that I’m writing a book!

*screaming*

It comes out in Fall 2027, and I’ll definitely let you know when it’s ready for pre-order. I. AM. SO. EXCITED.

Also, as a side note, someone emailed me last week, surprised I replied because they didn’t realize they could respond to these emails. FYI you can! I’m not a robot (though I do have very strong inbox dedication). I love them. I reply to every single one.

Why do I find this so shocking?

Via IG robdialjr:

“I don’t walk away to teach people a lesson, I walk away because I learned mine.”

I love this because it’s never about revenge or being petty, it’s about what you’ve outgrown.

Via TT graceful.wellness:

“Stopping your worst habit will change your life so much faster than starting your best habit. You have to fix the leak before you fill the bucket.”

This immediately made me think of my screen time.

I just know someone needs to hear this.

Via IG barebyevelyn:

“No one talks about how dangerous ‘good enough’ actually is. A relationship that doesn’t hurt, but doesn’t fulfill you. A job that’s stable, but draining. A home that’s comfortable but doesn’t reflect you. A city you settled for. A life that looks impressive, but feels empty.

One compromise may not seem like a problem. One ‘good enough’ may not feel like self betrayal. But when they stack year after year after year, you wake up one day living a life that reflects what you tolerated not what you wanted….But every time you choose ‘good enough’ over being fully aligned, you teach yourself that your desires don’t matter.”

I didn’t realize how busy this week was until I noticed I hadn’t had time to read, watch, or listen to anything—so I’ve got nothing for you in this section this week.

There was a question that went viral back in 2024 that asked women: would you rather be alone in the woods with a man or a bear? Women, without much hesitation, chose the bear.

Men, understandably, heard: “So you think we’re basically nature’s villains?”
Women meant: “You don’t understand what we’re navigating”

The disconnect would be funny if it weren’t also exhausting.

This week brought another round of reminders that the “bear question” didn’t come out of nowhere—between sexual misconduct allegations against Rep. Eric Swalwell and CNN’s reporting on an “online rape academy” that reached 62 million views (a phrase that sounds like something autocorrect would refuse to accept out of self-respect)—I found myself, once again, wondering how many times a woman can be surprised by the same category of story.

I texted a few men in my life: what’s your initial gut reaction when you a hear women say “I hate men”?

Then I posted the question online and it immediately went viral—showing how strongly people respond to this topic.

Somewhere in the middle of all that, my 14-year-old son asked me why women say they hate men. And I realized I didn’t have a neat answer that wouldn’t either flatten his curiosity or oversimplify the world he’s just starting to notice.

And here’s what I keep circling back to:

What are women actually saying when they say ‘I hate men’? Why do men hear something else—and what happens to the boys growing up in between?

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She didn’t hesitate. “Because that’s not how it is.”

It’s funny, the things you’re told as a child that quietly fall apart as you grow up. Because, as it turns out, that isn’t how it is. Not in the movies we watched, and definitely not in the world I’ve come to know.

They don’t just win, they rewrite the story about who the bad guys are in the first place. And if you grow up Arab, or Muslim (not synonymous, though often conflated), or even adjacent to either, you learn this early: the narrative is rarely yours.

You learn it in small ways first.

In classrooms where your country is reduced to a paragraph—usually somewhere between “conflict” and “oil,” as if those are the only exports worth mentioning. In news segments where people who look like you are either blurred, bombed, or blamed. In casual conversations where someone says “over there” with the same tone they’d use for a distant planet.

I’ve spent most of my life firmly planted on the side that prides itself on empathy—the side that insists no one should be invisible. I marched when I was asked to march, listened when I was told to listen, amplified when I was told voices mattered.

And yet, somehow, when it comes to people like me, there’s always an asterisk.

A pause. A careful change of subject. A “this is complicated” that somehow only appears when the victims look a certain way, pray a certain way, come from a certain part of the map.

It’s disorienting, realizing that the moral clarity you were taught to believe in has exceptions.

You start to notice who gets urgency and who gets analysis. Who gets names and who gets numbers. Who gets outrage, and who gets a panel discussion six weeks later—if at all.

And maybe the most isolating part isn’t the overt hostility. At least that, in a strange way, is honest. It’s the silence from the people who should know better.

It’s how we’re talked about. Or more accurately, how we’re not talked about. The silences. The careful wording. The one-sided headlines. The way entire groups of people can be reduced to a footnote, or worse, framed as the problem.

Voices I’ve spent my life respecting—activists, commentators, journalists with huge platforms—will either go quiet when it comes to Arabs and Muslims, or unintentionally fall back into the same tired narratives I grew up seeing in movies.

And here’s the part I don’t always say out loud: I edit myself.

I soften my words. I post less than I want to. I choose what feels “safe enough” to share. I try not to ruffle feathers, not because I don’t have something to say—but because I’ve learned that if I want to be heard at all, I have to be digestible.

Palatable. Reasonable. Calm.

I have to make my pain easier for other people to consume.

And I know I’m not alone in that. So many minorities learn this unspoken rule: you can tell the truth, but only if you sand down the edges. Only if you don’t make anyone too uncomfortable. Only if your humanity doesn’t come across as anger.

But there is anger.

Not the kind people like to stereotype—but the kind that comes from being overlooked, misrepresented, and repeatedly asked, in subtle ways, to prove your own humanity. The kind that makes you sit there watching yet another movie where someone like you shows up on screen and think: ah yes, there I am again—either about to explode something or explain why I shouldn’t be assumed to.

But when things escalate—when the gap between reality and representation becomes impossible to ignore—it stops feeling like something you can just quietly carry.

It feels loud. And heavy. And impossible to explain to people who have never had to question whether their humanity would be recognized in the first place.

My home country, Lebanon, is being incessantly bombed once again. And like clockwork, the same voices—the same activists, the same politicians who speak so freely about human pain—become noticeably quiet.

And I don’t think I have the right words for what that silence feels like, except that it makes everything inside you smaller. To realize, again and again, that you are asking—quietly, almost apologetically—to be included in the category of people who are allowed to matter.

What do we have to do to matter? To be seen without hesitation. To be held in the same moral space as everyone else.

I am so exhausted pleading with people to just look at us. Please, just f*cking look at us. Value us. Respect us. Care about us. Hear us. We are human too.

This week was a bit of a rollercoaster—equal parts sparkle and “what even is this timeline?”

The highs: a solid dose of retail therapy (arguably essential maintenance), quality time with family, and some news I’m excited about and will share soon when I can stop smiling mysteriously about it.

The lows: the absolute dumpster fire that is the current state of the world, and the ache of watching Lebanon—my country—go through so much pain from thousands of miles away.

Just want to say thank you all for your kind messages this week, I love this community.

My daughter came up with this week’s fun fact, and she’s currently hovering over me to make sure she is properly credited.

Can’t stop thinking about this question that’s been circulating on TikTok:

If you lost your memory and had to trust one person to tell you who you were, who would you choose?

This quote (via IG: wanderwithworthiii) slapped me in the face:

“I was keeping my old wounds fresh for a trial that would never come.”

I know “shift your mindset” and “romanticize your life” aren’t exactly groundbreaking ideas—we’ve all heard them in slightly different fonts since the dawn of Pinterest. But I loved the way a girl on TikTok (@carlyyhoward) framed it. She kept coming back to the idea of “Whistle While You Work” (yes, very Snow White-coded energy), as a way to move through everyday life. And for whatever reason that stuck with me.

Instead of treating mundane chores like personal betrayals—laundry, dishes, the gym, all the usual suspects—she reframed them as something lighter. Almost musical. Like you’re not suffering through your to-do list, you’re starring in a very low-budget, slightly chaotic musical where you are both the lead and the soundtrack.

She talked about having a choice: you can drag yourself through them like you’re in a tragic monologue OR you can whistle a little, lean into it, and make it just slightly more fun than it has any right to be. “Whistle While You Work!”

Strangers: This is a memoir. Without giving too much away, her husband leaves her suddenly at the beginning of the pandemic, completely out of nowhere. My heart broke for her, but it was such a compelling read. Every woman should read it—especially young women before getting married.

Jawbreaker: My daughter and I have been on a ’90s kick, and this movie definitely still holds up.

Ask me

It’s completely anonymous, ask me anything you want advice on and I’ll write about it once a month.

I recently read a stat claiming that roughly 85–90% of people are not actually self-aware. Naturally, I reacted the way any deeply self-aware person would: I laughed and thought, Wow. That’s so embarrassing for them.

And then I did what any self-aware person would do: I panic-Googled it to confirm that I am, in fact, exceptional.

Big mistake. HUGE.

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I worked on our taxes this week, which as you know, is an incredibly enjoyable activity. And yet fueled by the sole desire not to go to prison, I persisted.

Every year I dedicate my soul to the impossible mission of making my accountant laugh. This year, another accountant entered the room, and my attempts at levity bounced off him like they were made of concrete.

If you’re an accountant reading this, please tell me what I’m doing wrong. Am I failing at humor, or is tax law simply incompatible with jokes?

In other news, my therapist is back from maternity leave. YAY! My brain has been running wild without supervision, and it’s about to get a performance review.

lol

A good reminder.

Via IG: wethinkdeeply

Make sure to include yourself in the list of things you need to take care of this week.

This made me ugly cry.

Via IG: liseandsarah

“Someday your child will describe their childhood to someone you’ve never met. They’ll sit at a table you didn’t set, in a home you didn’t build across from people who only know them as adults and they’ll tell them a story about what it was like to grow up in your house. Not every detail, just the parts that stayed.

The feeling of walking through the door, the tone at the table, whether home felt warm or unwelcoming, joyful or tense, safe or performative. We don’t get to choose the story they tell, we don’t get to edit it later, but we’re writing it now in ordinary dinners, and random Tuesday nights and moments like the one you’re sitting in right this second.

Long after the legos are gone, and the schedules change, and the house gets quieter, the story of home keeps speaking. I can’t choose the story they’ll tell someday, but I keep setting the table like it matters because it does.”

Emily Mcdonald on Trevor Noah’s podcast (03/20/26): This was a long episode, but I loved it. Emily is a neuroscientist, and I’m always inspired by what she has to say. They talked about so many things—I especially enjoyed the conversation about the intersection of religion and science.

Hilary Duff on Call Her Daddy podcast (02/25/26): This interview fed my millennial soul.

Desperate Housewives: My daughter’s been watching this, and it felt like a blast from the past. I remembered enjoying the show but couldn’t recall a single thing about it—I watched a few episodes with her, and I loved it. It felt like I was watching it for the first time.

Ask me

It’s completely anonymous, ask me anything you want advice on and I’ll write about it once a month.

I received this message in my anonymous advice box:

Is it unreasonable to expect your husband to step in with his family? His mom will make little passive-aggressive comments to me and he just kind of pretends he doesn't hear it. Later he'll say she didn't mean it like that but I feel like I'm constantly left to deal with it alone.

Naturally, my first instinct was to consult the court of public opinion—otherwise known as Instagram polls. Some people said, “He should absolutely step in,” while others argued, “No—you can’t expect him to police his family; that’s on you.”

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Spring is here!…and so are my allergies, YAY. It’s that magical time of year when the flowers bloom, the sun shines, and my eyes are leaking, my nose is running, and I’m sneezing like I’m trying to communicate with ghosts.

Ok but actually, we have the most beautiful jasmine (star of jasmine??) blooming near our pool and they smell so good.

In other news, my mom is out of the country. Which is wildly inconvenient—and quite franking, rude—because now she’s in a different time zone and I can’t bombard her with hourly life updates. Can’t buy anything without her approval. Can’t alert her that I sneezed in real time. I’m 42, when will I stop needing my mother?

I can’t wait to tell my therapist.

I don’t know if it’s my Love Story binge on Hulu or my slow evolution into a nostalgic elder, but I’ve been craving that sweet, simple 90s life—pre-internet, pre-smartphones, pre-everything. This post struck a chord:

Via IG: wethinkdeeply

“You used to have your best ideas in the shower, but now you have a waterproof speaker. You used to get lost in thought waiting for the train, but now you have a phone to fill that gap. You used to daydream on long flights, but now there’s a screen on the seat in front of you. You used to think on your morning commute, but now you have a podcast in your ears before you leave the driveway. We used to stare into a fire, and let our minds go nowhere, but now TV replaces that. We filled every silence, and lost all ideas that lived inside of it.”

Love this so hard:

“If you want to inspire people, don’t show them your superpower. Show them theirs.” —Alexander den Heijer

Jefferson Fisher on Jay Shetty’s podcast (03/16/26): I’ve probably listened to Jefferson on multiple podcasts now, and it amazes me that I still enjoy every interview he has because I always take away so much wisdom. I love the way he stretches my brain when he talks about communication. I loved this episode.

Imperfect Women: This is a psychological thriller about three best friends, and then one of them is murdered, with various twists along the way. Not all the episodes have been released yet, but it’s good!

Ask me

It’s completely anonymous, ask me anything you want advice on and I’ll write about it once a month.

I think I’ve accidentally trained people to underestimate me. Not in a dramatic, villain-origin-story way. In a “haha I’m kidding…unless?” kind of way. The kind where you make yourself the punchline before anyone else gets the chance.

Obviously, this demanded the highest form of problem-solving I know: turning my thoughts into a post and asking for your stories too.

Earlier this week (on IG), I asked:
Why do people downplay themselves to put others at ease, and what impact does this have on their self-worth and the way they are treated?

My inbox turned into a confessional booth, and somewhere in the mix, something a therapist said cracked my brain open.

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