Girl World #23: Meghan, Ciara, Long-Distance Friendships, Trains, Italy Dreams, Mobility, SXSW Highlights, Beef Tallow Skincare, Eyeshadow Tutorials, and Boring Influencers

How are we getting our dopamine hits now that we’re not shopping as much? Whether you’re watching your budget a little closer given the economy or have been participating in boycotts, many us in Girl World have realized just how much we actually bought—that we didn’t necessarily need. Two months into changing our habits, it’s become clear that we have way too much stuff, and it’s also clear that we really enjoy those little hits of joy when our packages are delivered.

Natural ways to boost your dopamine that doesn’t include shopping are: meditation, achieving your goals (and checking them off a list), exercising, listening to upbeat music (our favorite genre is pop music, but choose your own adventure!), and enjoying sunshine. But, they haven’t completely cured the “I deserve a little treat.” boost.

Overconsumption is overrated anyway—so here’s some lessons from a no buy challenge. Let’s be clear though, we’re not not going to buy things, but we’re thinking twice before buying things we don’t need from the TikTok shop or Amazon.

Curating your feed and supporting diverse creators, brands, and entertainers: Trending on TikTok this week: Are all NYC influencers boring? Or, are you not engaging and following a diverse set of influencers? We love to curate our FYP and the creators we follow to help us achieve goals, get inspired, be entertained, cook amazing food, and a little bit of everything in between. If you don’t like what you’re seeing, don’t engage. If you don’t relate to the content or don’t like a “mean girl,” don’t follow them or comment. Your energy flows where attention goes. Be the editor of your life and act accordingly.

1. Kate Hudson rewatched her legendary rom coms and shares her reactions, insights, and memories! A How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days x Bride Wars double feature is in our near future.

2. Hot take: long-distance friendships aren’t hard. We have friends living across the world and it’s the best.

3. In the gospel according to Ciara, she delivers this truth bomb: “The three most powerful forces on Earth are the three M’s. It’s music, money, and medicine. Music can give you a feeling that money can’t buy sometimes. And then music can also heal you in a way that sometimes medicine can’t, right?”

4. Can you fundamentally change your personality? The Atlantic writer Olga Khazan set out to transform herself into the person she wants to be within one year. Her new book, Me, But Better, details her journey and explores the research behind changing your personality. 

5. We loved this feature on Gabby Thomas. She doesn’t focus on her medals. In fact, there are no shrines in her living room featuring her Olympic medals. She completed her master’s thesis at the University of Texas on racial disparities in sleep epidemiology. And, she has plans to run a non-profit when her track career ends. We love women doing good while also setting records.

6. Lemonada Media is in the news this week with the announcement of Meghan Markle’s new podcast, Confessions of a Female Founder. Of course, we’ll being tuning in and reporting back. But, first, let’s hear it for the two co-founders of the podcast network: Jessica Cordova Kramer and Stephanie Wittels Wachs. They’ve now launched over 40 podcasts with a wide-ranging list of topics. And, with plenty of diverse women’s voices. Discover a new podcast to listen to this weekend!

Bluesky CEO Jay Graber made headlines for her speech at SXSW 2025 this week. She was there to discuss her thoughts on the future of social media and took the opportunity to troll Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. As much as we love to see strong women pushing back, we loved that she didn’t hide her intelligence at all. She’s an expert in her field and she demonstrated that throughout her interview.

Lessons: Jay got a lot of media and social media attention by trolling Mark. People tuned into her speech because of that attention. The shirt she was wearing already sold out. Understanding that we’re in the attention economy and how to utilize those types of tactics can go a long way to achieving your personal and business goals.

And, don’t hide your expertise or intelligence. The world finds ways to try to make women smaller already—don’t help them. Take up space and own your unique experience, expertise, talent, and intelligence.

Flexibility and mobility: Are you feeling your age with that back pain or stiff legs after a Netflix binge? Or, do you just need to stretch? Dogs and cats stretch after sleeping—but why don’t we? Improve your flexibility and feel better by stretching. You don’t need to set aside large chunks of time: 10 minutes a day is a great foundation. You can even break it up into 5-minute segments. It’ll help keep you moving well into retirement days.

Now, let’s talk about mobility. What is mobility? Mobility is the ability to move your body freely and easily by ensuring you stretch and move your joints. Lack of mobility can cause pain, injury, and falls. It can even affect your athletic performance. Try these moves to improve your full-body range of motion. Adding a few of these moves to your stretching routine can keep you feeling good in your body.

We’re lovers of CARS (controlled articular rotations) so we’re swapping out our full stretching routine a couple of times a week for this routine—and we’re already feeling the changes. We always do the basic stretches before our morning walk to keep things flowing.

Weekly Hits: Feeling stressed? Try brain flossing. Endometriosis could be linked to trauma. Should cortisol levels be stressing you out? How to stop food noise naturally. Acupuncture could help with menstrual pain.

Beef tallow as skincare is trendy on TikTok, but does it work?

A tribute to what was lost in the L.A. fires. Beautiful imagery and stories.

We discovered this eyeshadow tutorial and we’re obsessed.

What nail polish is Meghan Markle wearing in her show? We love a nude pink.

Some women swear by the Lucky Girl Syndrome. Delulu is the the solulu so why not?

A one-day Rome itinerary that’s not boring.

The best new books of spring. We need a month-long vacation to make some headway on our TBR list.

The 20 most-anticipated new movies premiering at SXSW 2025.

Cosmo created pop music playlists based on attachment styles. It resonates.

This TikTok video has us adding a U.S. rail pass to our summer wish list.

Going Out: Fighting the Chicago urge to sit on a rooftop somewhere—anywhere—when it’s 72 and sunny mid-March. It’s St. Patrick’s Day weekend in Chicago, which means chaos and day drinking begins at breakfast tomorrow. We have Saturday night dinner plans with a friend—and likely will avoid much of the chaos as that crew will be sleeping off their fun.

Watching: White Lotus continues—this season is a little slow so far, but we’re committed. Catching up on the The Righteous Gemstones and their final season.

Listening: 5 Daily Habits to Be My Best Self and this Asma Khan interview. She is on the TIME100 list and a Michelin Star chef.

Reading: Careless People, by former Meta Director of Public Policy Sarah Wynn-Williams. Meta and Zuckerberg don’t want us to read it and fought to have her silenced so she can’t promote the book, but the publisher stands by it. And, so do we.

In the Kitchen: Trying out juicing for the first time. And, whipping up these spicy stuffed shells for Sunday night dinner.

Moving our Bodies: We’re back up to 10K steps per day so we’re continuing to enjoy walking around the city and soaking up the sunshine. We’re headed to Sweat Sessions for some girly workout time—we love an aesthetic fitness studio. Strength training continues on Saturday with Sunday night yoga plans this week.

💋 Jamie | Late August Media Founder

Girl World is a Late August Media publication.