Friendship Is a Rising Tide 👭

Hi friend,

If you’re new here, welcome to Girlhood, the group chat we should have had all along — where we talk openly about our bodies, the questions we whisper about, and the everyday moments that make us pause, laugh, or rethink life. It’s everything you’re feeling, but didn’t know how to say. Let’s dive in!

🚽 Some of Us Are Hiding in the Bathroom

Yesterday, one of my colleagues (squarely on the cusp of Gen Z and Millennial, so I took it with a grain of salt) recommended a "personal growth" podcast to me. So naturally, I did what any curious, overstimulated millennial mom does: I opened Apple Podcasts and started scrolling. One episode caught my eye: “I’m in my early 30s — here are a few things I’m still learning.”

Now, I looove a self-reflective queen. But I’ll admit, I almost immediately rolled my eyes. Not because I’m against introspection, but because lately it feels like everywhere I turn, someone is telling me the five things they’ve learned, or the seven things I need to be doing for my health and wellness. Meanwhile, I’m just trying to sneak to the bathroom without an audience.

You’re telling me about your ten-step skincare routine; I’m just proud I remembered deodorant.

I hate to say it, but the sentiment that “we all have the same 24 hours” simply isn’t true. Not when you have tiny humans depending on you for everything from snacks to emotional regulation. And yet, we keep being fed this narrative that if we just optimized a little harder, meditated a little longer, or journaled a little deeper, we’d finally “have it all together.”

This weekend, I read (almost) an entire book while my baby napped, and it reminded me that rest can be productive, and that stealing small moments of joy is just as important as checking things off a to-do list.

Maybe we don’t need another list of lessons or morning routines. Maybe we just need to give ourselves permission to pause, and in that pause, remember who we really are.

🔍 Ask Clara: Why is sleep important for women's health?

📚 The Books That Take Us Back

“You know how you can remember exactly when and where you read certain books? A great novel, a truly great one, not only captures a particular fictional experience, it alters and intensifies the way you experience your own life while you’re reading it. And it preserves it, like a time capsule.” ~Lily King, Heart the Lover

If you’re new here, you may not know that I spent nearly a decade working in book publishing at Penguin Random House. And while I absolutely love what I do now (or else I wouldn’t be here, writing this), I’ll admit: if I weren’t running Rescripted, I’d probably still be there, talking books, trading early galleys over coffee, and selling stories that linger long after the cover is closed.

This past weekend, I finished Heart the Lover, and it was the first time in a while that a book truly captivated me — that unputdownable kind of read that swallows whole afternoons. I was instantly transported back to my early twenties, when my relationship at the time felt like the only thing that mattered.

Reading it felt like walking down memory lanes I didn’t know were still paved. The narrator (unnamed until the end) meets two brilliant classmates, Sam and Yash, in her senior year of college. They call her “Jordan,” invite her into their electric world of late-night card games and 17th-century lit debates, and the triangle ignites.

What stayed with me was how our younger selves make decisions that ripple across decades. Jordan dates Sam but falls for Yash; years pass, she becomes a writer and a mother, and the past comes roaring back. The heartbreak, the longing, the what-ifs, they all remind us that who we were quietly shapes who we become. 

The Guardian called the novel “a long, tender farewell to youth,” and I can’t think of a better description. Because that’s the thing about getting older: our choices shape our fate, yes, but two things can be true at once. We can move forward and still feel the tug of the selves we used to be.

🔍 Ask Clara: Can reading positively impact your mental health?

🧖🏽‍♀️ When Skin Trends Go Too Far

Speaking of aging gracefully, this week the FDA issued a safety alert that made me pause mid-scroll. Radiofrequency (RF) microneedling devices — tiny needles that deliver heat under the skin to “tighten” or “rejuvenate” — have apparently been linked to serious complications: burns, scarring, fat loss, nerve damage, and disfigurement. Some people have even needed surgery afterward. The FDA is still investigating, but they’re urging anyone affected to report problems.

Browsing through TikTok, I saw why this matters. People were sharing their experiences, faces burned, scarred, and swelling after procedures they thought were low-risk. One creator held her cheek like it had been through a war zone. Another mentioned it took her more than two years to recover. A doctor explained that RF microneedling is a medical procedure, not a spa treatment or at-home hack. Tiny needles plus heat can go wrong fast if used incorrectly.

It reminded me how easy it is to conflate trending with safe. Social media makes even risky treatments look harmless, fun, or “worth a try.” But these are real bodies, real pain, and, for some, real consequences.

The takeaway? Ask questions. Know the risks. Seek care from trained professionals. And if something goes wrong, report it. The FDA’s MedWatch program lets patients share details online, by mail, or fax, helping prevent others from being harmed. Your experience matters.

Watching those videos, I realized this isn’t just about skincare; it’s about respecting our bodies and our boundaries, even when society tells us we should optimize them with the next shiny trend. It begs the question: how do you decide which beauty or wellness hacks are worth the risk, and which ones you step back from? 

🔍 Ask Clara: How do you know which skincare trends are safe?

👭 Friendship Is a Rising Tide

Something else to know about me: I’m a girl’s girl to my core. Maybe once, in middle school, I claimed, “I just get along better with guys” (didn’t we all?). But by high school, my girlfriends were my lifelines. Cheerleading, softball, musical theatre — it was never just about winning or performing; it was about the inside jokes, the post-practice hangouts, and that feeling of belonging.

The thing about girlhood is that it teaches you early on what really matters: showing up for each other. Every day, it becomes clearer to me that we should be celebrating our friends not just for the big, ‘expected’ milestones like marriage or babies, but for the quieter, courageous moments: leaving a bad relationship, running a marathon, starting a new business, or taking a leap they’ve been scared to take.

Cheering for each other in those moments is the heart of friendship, the kind that carries you through messy breakups, toddler meltdowns, job changes, and all the unexpected twists and turns of your 30s. 

That’s why I love the idea of a “rising tide.” Someone said it to me in the early days of Rescripted, and it stuck: when one of us wins, we all win. When someone takes a step forward, it makes the path a little bit wider for everyone else. Life is bigger than any single rivalry, and there’s (quite literally) room for all of us. Because life, like friendship, like girlhood, isn’t a zero-sum game.

xo,
Kristyn

🔍 Ask Clara: How often is women's pain ignored?