GIRLFRIENDS (/ˈɡərlˌfrends/ plural noun): The bad b*itches in your squad who know you at your best and your worst and still love you just the same. The ones who know the right time to pop a bottle of bubbles and also when you need someone to wipe the red lipstick off your teeth. They’re the best, and we need them.
Girl Squads Fo Lyfe
Ladies: We need each other in such a big way, that’s bigger than your squad; and we need to leverage that tribe-like camaraderie and support on a big BIG scale, without conditions, every damn day.
Here are a few things we need to start doing:
Don’t throw shade on someone’s winning season. You may not like Brenda (sorry Brenda), but if she’s in her winning season, or just “doing her thang”, don’t let your insecurities about your own life and your perspective rob her if her gold medal moment or from living her best life.
Don’t let your negativity or world view set us back. Ladies fight the good fight on so many fronts every day; while competing with men in a world built by men for men, with men’s leadership styles, ways of living and preferences as the gold standard. There are many ways to live. And you don’t have to agree with all of them.
Flip it to a Man-Script. “Sally is too XYZ.” Is she really? If a man did that would it be the same? If not, say something, with examples.
Stop judging other women, and redirect that energy into working on yourself. When you trash talk a fellow female, it gives our counterparts the green light to do the same which only further reduces us to a subject and product up for the superficial critique, and keeps us in boxes.
Stop comparing. Comparison and hater-ation is a killer of joy and progress for our gender and working woman movement.
If you can’t say something nice about her: a). Say nothing b). Be a boss have a 1:1 coaching moment with your girl.
Literally support women’s businesses and hustle. There are so many free ways to do this: post about it, talk about it, tell her/her boss/her peers how great it/she is. Spread the word.
Change the conversation. Spend less time talking about small minded things — makeup, anti-aging, diets 😴 — and more time talking about business, hustle, big ideas, bossing up.
Let’s go ladies we’ve got work to do.
xx, Danielle