12/17 - coastal grandma meets hyperpop goth
Tuesday’s Newsletter: perimenopause, JVN, and hundreds of fish
Hello! Thanks to Casey’s shout out yesterday, I received a healthy burst of new subscribers. I get butterflies in my stomach when I write the first newsletter for newbies. It’s like walking in on the first day of school and I keep repeating to myself “be cool, be cool, just be cool.”
I wish I could be aloof and act casual about it but alas, I’m a nerd who cares a lot.
With that being said, I’m absolutely THRILLED you’re here. Make yourself at home, put your feet up, and get acquainted with a newsletter that spans so many topics that it’s difficult to succinctly describe at parties.
A brief recap of the weekend before I jump into everything: Market Hotel is a wild ride. Capacity is a wild ride. At one point in the night we looked to the right and saw we were dancing next to Jonathan van Ness and Amelia from Sylvan Esso. Inexplicably, there were over a dozen people wearing flaccid messenger bags in the club… so I guess we’re doing that now. If you want that full debrief of the evening, we can get coffee and chat about it because I want to remain employable but what I will put in writing is I heard a remix of Hotel Room Service by Pitbull that was so good I hope it lives on long after humanity’s extinction, echoing in the cosmos as a reminder that we were here 👩🚀.
I’m looking forward to seeing old and new friends tonight at the Wishlist Gift Exchange. Remember to add a note to your wrapped gift with why it’s your recommendation of choice.
This is the vibe I hope we all bring to the function:
Thought Starters
Perimenopause is the new “it” girl
*article*
In my early twenties, hormonal acne randomly popped up alongside a slower metabolism. My emotions and body were all over the place, but when I talked to a doctor she assured me this was all normal. Before this point, I thought you just had to make it through the hell of being a teenager and then your body would reach this perfect stasis (lol). Then in my mid twenties hormonal acne hit me like a truck. It wasn’t the worst case but was painful and the trendy TikTok products people “swore” to be a magic fix only served to take up space in my medicine cabinet. My dermatologist and gynecologist both informed me that women go through a kind of second puberty in their mid-twenties. During this time, your hormones can change your body, period, skin, hair, emotions, etc. I loved being wrapped in a paper robe for a second time in 5 years, receiving info about my body’s trajectory that someone should have definitely warned me about. I did what any sane person does after discovering a National Treasure-like conspiracy, I shared it with all of my friends. Over brunch, drinking coffee, at the grocery store, on the beach, via voice memo - if I had access to carrier pigeons, I would have used them too.
Recently, the veil has been lifted on another mysterious stage of womanhood: perimenopause. I’ve spoken with several friends who are still in their 20’s who’ve started learning about it through anecdotes on TikTok or Halley Berry’s company RESPIN. We all want to get ahead of the curve, because at this point in our lives, our bodies have surprised us more than we’d like to admit.
This article dives into the “menopause deception epidemic.” Where there is a fear, confusion, and a vacuum of information, grifting thrives. There are supplements, creams, tinctures, tools, and a shocking amount of celebrities promoting these products. Women find themselves lost in a sea of information and symptoms without clear direction from the internet or their healthcare providers. Turns out most OB/GYNs receive very little training on menopause and even less on perimenopause. To date, there has only been ONE study on perimenopause:
“As Faubion told me, and other experts confirmed, there has not been a single comprehensive medical study on perimenopausal women. (“Literally nothing?” I asked her, repeating her words back. “Nothing,” she said.) Only one study of any kind is known to have been published in a medical journal — in Menopause, in 2021. The paper was based on a survey helmed by a business consultant with no medical background, who at age 42 found herself so enraged by the lack of data that she decided to collect it herself.”
This is frustrating but not surprising. I mean, we just found out our tampons have traces of lead and arsenic in them. One thing’s for sure, we can all feel united in not knowing what’s going on and being livid at the lack of research and responsible advocates. I wish there was a way we could band together and fund studies ourselves (if this already exists, please dm me!). I’m sick of being unwittingly poisoned or told my health is not a priority. Why to we have to turn to creams instead of science?
“The information collapse was somewhat familiar — influencers acting like doctors, doctors acting like influencers — but I actually needed answers, and I had no idea what was what.”
“If you find yourself wondering, “Is it perimenopause, or do I have a thyroid problem? Is it perimenopause, or is it the state of the world?” lucky for you, there is no accurate test to provide a diagnosis, despite kits promising clarity via hormone-level measurements.”
“Unfounded claims are of course the lifeblood of the multitrillion-dollar wellness industry. And yet there was something particularly sinister about this slice of the business. It was leveraging a significant void in public knowledge, ratcheting up classic feminine anxieties and further entangling them with real issues, all while claiming to pull women from silent shame and into sisterhood.”
Things to do
Fundraiser for Oko Farms at Public Records
When: December 21, 5 pm
What: Oko Farms is the only urban aquaponics farm in the city and they just lost their space in Williamsburg. Public Records is hosting a fundraiser with music, vendors, and food to raise proceeds towards their new location along with temporary storage of their equipment and hundreds of fish 👀 If you cared about the Bed-Stuy Aquarium, you should care about this 🫶 Donate here if you want to help but can’t attend the party.
Products
Umbonium Earrings
*jewelry*
I love freaky weird things and the spiky shells from My Dearest World have the vibes of a cyber sigilism back tat. It’s like coastal grandma meets hyperpop goth.
What is it? Umbonium Earrings
How much? $80