Hey,

There’s a specific kind of praise many women grow up trusting. It tells you you’re capable. Reliable. Strong. The one people can count on. And for a long time, that praise works. It motivates. It steadies. It becomes part of how you understand yourself. Until one day, usually much later, you notice what it’s been quietly replacing.

Support. Shared effort. Being checked on instead of counted on. This realization doesn’t arrive as anger but as clarity, a recalibration of what feels respectful and extractive. What sounds like appreciation and what actually shows up as care.

This #Edition20 sits with that recognition. Not to harden you. Not to undo your strength. But to help you notice where admiration ends and responsibility should begin.

Inside this edition:
🧩 Being Admired Isn’t the Same as Being Supported
📚 What she’s watching, cooking, shopping this week
📰 5 headlines worth her time
✨ Her Spotlight
🤍 Note to Her

Take your time with this one.

There’s a moment many women recognize only in hindsight. When admiration starts to feel heavy. Quiet. Polite. Even flattering.

“You’re so strong.” “You can handle anything.” “I really admire how hard you work.”

On the surface, it sounds like respect. And sometimes, it is. But other times, it’s something else entirely. Because admiration, when left unchecked, can quietly turn into expectation.

Problem isn’t a man respecting a hardworking woman. Problem is what happens after that respect is established. When admiration becomes permission. To step back. To assume. To let her carry more emotionally, mentally, logistically, because she can.

And slowly, strength stops being seen as a trait… and starts being treated like a resource.

Most women weren’t taught to be supported first. We were taught to be capable first. Capable daughters, partners, employees, problem-solvers. So when someone praises that capability, it feels affirming. Validating. Earned.

But over time, many women realize something unsettling: They are being admired for their endurance, and not protected from it. Being praised for how much you can carry can quietly excuse others from carrying with you. And, there’s a difference women are learning to name.

Conditional admiration sounds like: “She can handle it.” “She doesn’t need much.” “She’s fine — she always is.”

Real admiration sounds like: “You’ve done enough. Let me step in.” “Your strength doesn’t mean you should do this alone.” “I respect how capable you are — and I still want to make your life easier.”

One sees strength as a reason to lean back. The other sees strength as something worth protecting.

And, this realization often comes later. After years of being dependable. After relationships where “support” never quite arrived. After burnout that no one saw coming because she never dropped the ball.

Women aren’t becoming less strong. They’re becoming more discerning. They’re learning that being admired is not the same as being held. And that the right kind of respect doesn’t just clap for your resilience — it actively reduces the need for it.

Here’s the shift happening under the surface:

Women are no longer impressed by praise that doesn’t come with participation. They’re listening for follow-through. For shared load. For presence that doesn’t require collapse to activate.

Because strength should never be the price of support. And admiration, when it’s real, doesn’t just notice how much you can carry — it asks what it can help take off your hands.

💬 Ideas to tune into when the world’s too loud.

🎬 Watch: Beginners (Dir. Mike Mills)
This film understands how women often adapt instead of being met and what it costs to keep being “fine” for everyone else → Watch when you’re realizing that being understanding shouldn’t mean being unsupported.

🥕 Cook: Spiced Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Butter Icing
Deeply spiced, softly sweet, unfussy. Kind of a thing you make when you want to be taken care of by your own hands. No raisins. No rules. Just warmth and a generous layer of icing → Bake when you want nourishment that doesn’t ask you to justify it.

🍵 Try: Pique Sun Goddess Matcha
Less “fix yourself,” more “support your system.” Clean energy without the spike. Grounding, steady, and intentional → Try when you want your mornings to feel cared for, not commanded.

January is the perfect time to reset, rebalance, and support your body after the indulgence of the holidays. If you’re doing Dry January or simply craving a fresh start, focusing on liver health can make a powerful difference—and it’s one of the most overlooked wellness rituals.

That’s why I’ve made Pique’s Liver Detox Protocol part of my January reset. Inspired by over 3,000 years of Traditional Chinese Medicine, this gentle daily ritual supports your body’s natural detoxification processes without harsh cleanses or deprivation.

The protocol includes two simple moments a day: Electric Turmeric in the morning and La Ginger in the evening. In the morning, Electric Turmeric feels warming, grounding, and nourishing—like a calm reset before the day begins. At night, La Ginger is bold and soothing, supporting digestion and overnight renewal.

Within weeks, I noticed steadier energy, less bloating, clearer skin, and an overall lighter feeling. It didn’t feel like a detox—it felt like alignment. Two small rituals, big results.

Get 20% off + free gifts

✨Strength doesn’t mean carrying it alone. Let yourself be met today.

🌍 5 stories shaping the week for women everywhere.

🧠 AI finally draws a line around consent: After global backlash, xAI has blocked Grok from creating sexualized images of real people. Investigations are underway across the U.S., Europe, and Asia over AI-generated nonconsensual deepfakes.
🩺 Cancer isn’t always a death sentence anymore: New data shows more women are surviving even the deadliest cancers, with major gains in breast and ovarian cancer outcomes. Rising diagnosis rates remain real — but so does longer, fuller life after them.
🚨 Trump threatens troops on U.S. streets: Trump is weighing use of the Insurrection Act amid immigration raids and protests in Minnesota. Legal experts warn the rarely used power could normalize military presence in civilian life.
🌍 Iran protests meet global brinkmanship: At an emergency UN meeting, the U.S. warned Iran that “all options are on the table” as protests led by civilians — many of them women — face violent crackdowns and internet blackouts.
🎧 Your playlists just got pricier: Spotify is raising U.S. subscription prices again — its third hike in four years. Individual, family, and student plans are all going up as streaming costs quietly stack up.\

Found her. Loved her. Needed you to see her.

Sughra Rababi helped shape Pakistan’s visual language after independence, then quietly disappeared from the story. Studied at the Slade in London, built a bold, unmistakable style, and blended modernism with cultural memory long before it was celebrated. And then she left the spotlight. Lived alone. Kept working, without applause, without archives, without guarantees.

Her work is only now being recovered. Which makes her story a reminder that admiration, recognition, even legacy, are often conditional on how much of yourself you’re willing to keep offering. 

For those who want to go looking: explore her work, sit with it, and notice how much brilliance can exist without permission.

This is what real support looks like. From here on, Her Weekly Download arrives Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays — with stories that question strength-as-default and make room for shared weight.

✨ P.S. Know a woman who’s tired of being admired instead of helped? Send it her way – Because the best kind of wisdom is the one we pass woman to woman💚