How I’m prepping to THRIVE in my 40s. #TransparentTuesday Hey friend, My “half birthday” is coming up, which means I’m only about 6 months away from turning 40, and halfway through the year-long “glow-up” experiment I set for myself! I haven’t written much about this experiment yet but it’s been incredibly rewarding, and now that I’m halfway through I’ve decided I’m ready to share! To be clear, I know the term “glow-up” is most often used to describe an “aesthetic improvement

I think the Gottmans got this one wrong. #TransparentTuesday Hi friend, This week I heard a disgustingly fatphobic clip from Mel Robbins interviewing John and Julie Gottman, and I am PISSED. If you don’t know who these people are, Mel Robbins is an annoying “white girl feminism”-style motivational speaker and author who I’m not a fan of…. so it’s really not a big surprise to me that her work wouldn’t click with me. But John and Julie Gottman happen to be world-renowned clini

The hidden assumptions behind "romantic" gestures. #TransparentTuesday Hi friend, A few weeks ago, a man tried to twirl me, and I hated it. No shade to anyone who enjoys being twirled here—I know plenty of people who do! And maybe you’ll hear this story and be like “Jessi it’s just a twirl, it’s not that deep.” But as a person whose literal job it is to point out when things are deeper than they appear, I have thoughts, so buckle up! Ok, so what happened was that this guy and

Seeing ourselves helps us heal. Seeing each other helps us grow. #TransparentTuesday Hi friend, I'm reading a book right now called Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao, and I am completely obsessed with it. It’s the first book in a YA science fantasy trilogy, which is very much my jam already. But then it’s also written by a Chinese non-binary author, it features a non-binary protagonist (so rare!!) and it takes ideas that are already deeply interesting to me—think: gender, identity

Approval ≠ Understanding #TransparentTuesday Hi friend, Lately I’ve been thinking about the subtle differences between feeling validated, and feeling seen… and why we often think we crave one, when we actually need the other. In my experience, people tend to conflate the two because they can feel similar from the outside. Both can calm us down when we’re upset. Both can make us feel more connected and less alone. Both can make us feel like we’re being understood, valued, or

Good news for women's health! (For once.) #TransparentTuesday Hi friend, I came across a piece of genuinely good news in women's health recently, and given the state of, well… everything… I feel like we should take our wins where we can get them! What happened is that—after more than a decade of debate, consultation, research, and ferocious advocacy—the condition formerly known as PCOS (Polycystic Ovary Syndrome) has officially been renamed PMOS: Polyendocrine Metabolic Ovari

Ashley St. Clair, accountability, and the question I can't stop thinking about. #TransparentTuesday Hi friend, I’ve been fascinated by Ashley St. Clair’s TikTok content lately. Now, if you don’t know who Ashley St. Clair is…honestly, that's probably healthy. Ashley was a prominent MAGA influencer for years who started at the very young age of 19 to build a public platform creating incredibly problematic and harmful right-wing content. She was particularly known for her anti-t

Hi friend, Recently, I’ve spent a lot of time helping my clients process their feelings about AI, and I think we need to talk about it. The AI revolution is already underway and shit is changing fast. Google just announced that it no longer sees itself as a search engine, but as an AI platform. Bumble is experimenting with a future where your AI avatar dates other people’s AI avatars before you ever speak to a real human. Entire industries are reorganizing themselves around

Hi friend! Today I want to share a couple of updates, new offers, and ways we can work together or stay in touch as we head into summer! First up, I just published the 8th and final module of course material on Patreon for my self-study e-course about navigating body image issues as you get older, and “age out” of conventional beauty and body ideals! I created this course, which is called Age Neutrality: Feeling Confident & Body Neutral as Your “Looks Fade,” to help you neutr

“I can’t stop snacking at night,” my client told me, frustrated. She assured me that this habit wasn’t about physical hunger, and that it didn’t matter how much she ate earlier in the day, or even how much she ate for dinner. It didn’t matter what dinner was, or what time she ate dinner, or even which snacks she kept in the house—every single night, approximately 20 minutes after finishing dinner, my client would find herself standing in front of the fridge or snack cupboard