Zara Hanawalt
Stop whispering, start talking: sharp, sassy takes on life in a female body.
Barbie is Delivering Much-Needed Autism Representation to Young Girls
Representation matters — especially for kids.
Take it from someone who never saw myself represented in the pop culture that reigned when I was growing up: Kids who don’t see themselves reflected anywhere can easily start to feel like they don’t belong, or even that they are unworthy.
That’s why I’m cheering over the news that Barbie has partnered with ASAN (Autistic Self-Advocacy Network) to create a Barbie doll with autism.
Now, I know what you’re thinking. Autism is a complex, often invisible condition. How can that be represented with a doll?
According to a post announcing this release, the Barbie has elements that represent some things people with autism may relate to: She wears noise-cancelling headphones, which some people with autism rely on to reduce sensory overload, and carries a fidget spinner, which may be a familiar sensory outlet for people with autism.
The Barbie also has a shifted gaze (as people with autism may struggle to make direct eye contact), wears a dress that represents sensory-sensitive clothing, and carries a Augmentative and Alternative Communication tablet, which some people use as a communication tool.
This is especially beneficial because so often in our cultural depictions of autism, we see boys — and that isn’t just a representation thing; it goes deeper.
The condition tends to present differently in girls. According to the Child Mind Institute, more boys are diagnosed with autism than girls, but not necessarily because there are boys with the condition. Girls tend to be better at masking signs of autism, and they’re also more likely to have their symptoms dismissed by doctors. Isn’t it funny how the health care and behavioral gender gaps begin in childhood?
But with this Barbie, maybe we are making strides towards better understanding how the condition presents in girls and women — and giving young girls a tangible piece of representation to help them feel less isolated.
Ask Clara:
"What is the gender health care gap?"
'Admin Night' is Trending and Here's Why It's Beneficial
Have you come across the term "admin night?". If not, a quick breakdown: Admin night refers to casual get-togethers where friends hang out and tackle their life and household admin work — think scheduling appointments, paying bills, sending emails — together.
This is gaining traction for several reasons: One, it allows people to see their friends more, which is always a plus in our book. Two, it helps people stay accountable, put their heads down, and get stuff done. Friendship and household admin are two things that can easily fall to the bottom on our list of priorities (when competing with work, parenting, caregiving, fitness, etc), and this trend allows people to carve out time for both in one fell swoop.
Some people say this is particularly beneficial for people with ADHD, thanks to the practice of "body doubling", which is a productivity strategy for people with the condition.
According to materials from Cleveland Clinic, body doubling occurs when you complete a task in the presence of another person, and it's a form of external executive functioning. Since ADHD affects the part of the brain that oversees executive functioning, adding another person in close proximity to you can help create a more focused environment.
Listen, we're all for this. We believe in the value of investing in friendship, and we love that the "admin night" trend makes so much of the invisible, underappreciated labor women take on disproportionately a bit more...well, visible. It acknowledges that we all have a ton of admin work to do, and that this work takes time.
Want to plan an admin night of your own? Go for it! And have fun with it. Encourage everyone to wear cozy pajamas or a matching sweat set, have tons of snacks, and keep it super casual. And remember: You're not just getting stuff done, you're also reaping the health benefits of friendship. A win/win.
Ilona Maher Just Healed a Piece of My Lifelong Body Insecurity
I have a confession: I have always, always been very self-conscious of my stomach. It’s just…never been flat. Not when I was a teenager, and certainly not after birthing twins.
For most of my life, I’ve felt like I’m the odd one out, probably because I’ve been fed so many images of perfectly flat, edited, airbrushed images. And clearly, those images have affected the way we expect women’s bodies to look.
See: The fact that when a woman dares to have a visible belly outline, the world loves to tell her she “looks pregnant”. This recently happened to Ilona Maher, our body inclusive queen who always, always has the perfect clap back. Here’s the comment she directed to the man (of course it was a man) who body-shamed her.
“So to him, I say, ‘That's just a normal woman's body. You probably haven't seen a woman naked in a long time, if ever, and I hope you never get the privilege to again, 'cause that's just how we are, okay?’ ” Maher said.
And you know what? Heck yes! This *is* what a normal, healthy, strong body looks like.
We have been so conditioned to think we have to hide any shape through our bellies away from the world, or do a cleanse before we’re going to be in a bikini, or suck it in at all times. But the reality is, bellies have a whole range of shapes and it’s all normal.
With her clap back, Maher honestly healed a little part of me…and I wish I could have heard this type of thing when I was growing up.
“I always have this, okay?” Maher said of her stomach. “I'm sucking it in right now. And I have it, so, please, please, stop commenting the dumbest stuff.”
Yup. What she said.
Ask Clara:
"Why is my belly not flat?"
A New Study Reveals Serious Dangers Linked to Tanning Beds
The idea that tanning beds can increase your risk of melanoma is nothing new. We of course know that when it comes to skin safety, both natural sunlight and tanning beds carry significant risks — risks that outweigh the aesthetic benefits of a golden glow. But, important update time: New research suggests that tanning beds present even greater dangers than we anticipated.
Recent research from Northwestern Medicine and University of California, San Francisco finds evidence to challenge a long-held belief that tanning beds are no more dangerous than sunlight.
The study's first author, Pedram Gerami, MD, has noticed high numbers of women under 50 with histories of multiple melanomas in his work. This inspired Dr. Gerami and his research team to compare medical records of tanning bed users against records of those with no history of indoor tanning. Melanoma was diagnosed in 5.1 percent of tanning bed users compared to 2.1 percent of non-users observed.
Dr. Gerami and his team were able to learn more thanks to the women who donated their biopsies to help him better understand this relationship.
In an abstract for this news, the researchers point out a few things: One, the indoor tanning industry is making a comeback. Two, many of the women who had melanoma later in life started tanning in their teens. Dr. Gerami believes at the very least, indoor tanning should be illegal for minors. To me, this makes perfect sense: Minors don’t have the ability to truly understand the lifelong risks. And if this research is any indication, they’re even greater than we previously thought.
What’s the takeaway here? You may be seeing indoor tanning places pop up, but please consider this research before tanning this way. And also, let’s take this deeper: This represents yet another way women put themselves at risk in pursuit of an unrealistic beauty standard.
As one woman who donated her biopsy to Dr. Gerami’s research shared, many of us started using tanning beds multiple times a week in our teens because “it felt like that’s what made you beautiful,’ says 49-year-old Heidi Tarr, a melanoma survivor.
If you’ve used a tanning bed, don’t panic. What’s done is done. But Dr. Gerami advises anyone who has used a tanning bed have a full body scan done by their dermatologist.
Ask Clara:
"What is the safest way to tan your skin?"
The 'Toxic Mom Group' is Proof: The Female Frenemy Obsession is Following Us Into Middle Age
I grew up on female frenemy stories. There was Gossip Girl’s Blair and Serena, One Tree Hill’s Peyton and Brooke, Laguna Beach’s Lauren and Kristin (and eventually Lauren and Heidi, IYKYK).
Pitting women against one another is the patriarchy’s favorite tool, yet women devour the “fraught female friendship” trope with a special kind of glee (and listen — I’m not above this myself!).
That’s why I’m not surprised at all by the virality of the article Ashley French (better known as Ashley Tisdale) wrote. It’s the intersection of juicy celeb gossip and “hey, what a perfect opportunity to pit women against one another”, two things we love on a cultural level.
But the thing that is so striking to me about the whole “toxic friend group” debacle is that while my fellow millennial women and I have grown up, the frenemy obsession hasn’t evolved much. We still love to pick sides and dig into the details and assign the “mean girl” label. If reactions to this story are any indication, we’re not shaking the frenemy obsession anytime soon.
Why does this matter? Well, because female friendships deserve better PR. They aren’t just nice to have, they actually bring so many important health benefits. We’ve covered these before, but today I want to talk about how we would much rather fixate on the nasty side of female friendships rather than the wonderful side.
I’ve never seen any dissection of male friendships, certainly not on the level of what we see around “toxic” female friendships. So what gives?
The issue here isn’t the toxic mom group itself. Friendships aren’t perfect, and it’s normal to move in and out of groups. It’s the fact that this “toxic mom group” story, and so many others, captivate us on such a massive level. And even though we are grown women, it all feels, as French puts it herself, very high school.
We’ve grown and evolved — yet the world won’t let us outgrow the female frenemy trope.
Dr. Janell Green Smith's Death is Tragic. It's Also Infuriating.
Dr. Janell Green Smith made combatting the maternal mortality crisis — which disproportionately affects Black women — her life’s work. On January 2, Smith died of childbirth complications during her first child’s birth. She was 31 years old.
Smith was a Black midwife and a maternal health advocate — a person who could have made so many more strides in the fight against Black maternal mortality had she not been a victim of the very thing she worked to prevent. Her death isn’t just a tragedy; it’s also an infuriating wake-up call.
A tribute from The American College of Nurse-Midwives states: “That a Black midwife and maternal health expert died after giving birth in the United States is both heartbreaking and unacceptable. Her death underscores the persistent and well-documented reality that Black women—regardless of education, income, or professional expertise—face disproportionate risks during pregnancy and childbirth due to systemic racism and failures in care.”
And that’s just what it is: Smith had all the education and information and tools, yet it wasn’t enough.
This is the reality women of color, but especially Black women, face in healthcare settings. It’s a constant uphill battle: No matter how much you know or learn or advocate, there’s this deep understanding that you will not be taken seriously. That you will not be cared for or kept safe…or even kept alive.
There’s a lot of discourse right now about the declining birth rate, to which I say this: Don’t try to convince women to have children. Fix the systems. The systems that put our bodies and lives at risk. The systems that fail women like Dr. Janell Green Smith every day.
How can we honor this woman’s legacy? We can continue her fight. The United States has the highest maternal mortality rate among high-income nations, and racial disparities have persisted. That’s unacceptable. We owe it to Smith and the other victims of the maternal mortality crisis to continue the fight and to demand better.
Ask Clara:
"What is the maternal mortality crisis?"
An Ode to Tatiana Schlossberg. May Her Legacy Light the Way
I'm sure I'm not the only person who has thought about Tatiana Schlossberg a lot since learning of her tragic death. On December 30, the environmental journalist died of acute myeloid leukemia. She was just 35 years old, and she passed just over a month after sharing an essay about her diagnosis and battle with the disease.
After I heard about Schlossberg's passing, I went back and read the entire essay. I suggest you do as well. Because even in near-death sickness, this tremendous woman took the time to use her voice as a tool.
In her essay, Schlossberg recounted a near-fatal postpartum complication. She talked about vaccine access, particularly how it affects immunocompromised people. She gave us a real look at what it is to be a patient as the health care system weathers changes — many at the hands of her own cousin, Robert F. Kennedy Jr, whom she called "an embarrassment" to her and family. She detailed the treatments she tried, the access her fame and fortune provided, and the ways in which having a doctor spouse granted her answers. She shed light on the heroism and compassion of healthcare workers.
She gave the spotlight to so many others — and in addition to powerful commentary on the implications of restricting access and information, she also shared all the ways she thought of others during her illness and the impact it would have on them.
How she thought of her mother, Caroline Kennedy, weathering another tragedy. How her sister donated stem cells to try and save her. And, perhaps most poignantly, how, when she received her terminal sentence, her first thought was that her children wouldn't remember her.
It's a testament to what women do, every day: We think of everybody else, even when we are facing the heaviest battles. We consider and we care. Often to our own detriment. But Schlossberg's powerhouse essay is testament to the beauty of this thing women do even in their darkest moments.
Rest in peace and in power, Tatiana Schlossberg. You left this world too soon, but your legacy and your advocacy and your incredible strength will live on.
What I Want to See in the World of Women's Health in 2026
We saw some wins in the world of women’s health in 2025, but the fact of the matter is…well, 2025 also brought a lot of tough moments for women.
I won’t rehash them here, but I will say this: We aren’t where I want us to be as we head into 2026. We aren’t even close. And we have a lot of work to do — work that will, once again, fall directly on women.
Of course, we want to see more breakthroughts, more access, more women securing diagnoses, and more destigmatization of women's health issues. But it's about more than that. Here’s what I hope to see in the world of women’s health as we move into a new year.
Additional resources, as always
Women’s health is underfunded. That’s nothing new, of course, and we’re still nowhere near where we need to be in terms of allocating enough money and time towards women’s health research.
With that being said, we’re finally starting to talk about how this is at the root of so many issues in women’s health. So like...that's a start?
More bodytalk
When women talk about their health experiences, that’s a form of advocacy too. A powerful one.
Yes, celebrities have the power to use their big platforms to spread awareness about women’s health issues, but you don’t have to have fame in order to be influential here. Even just talking to a friend about your symptoms can carry major influence.
In 2026, I want to see women really normalizing conversations about the “taboo stuff” in women’s health. Of course, we've made fantastic progress here, but this year I want to see...
Even more destigmatization
We've done amazing things to destigmatize issues like miscarriage, infertiltiy, postpartum depression. There is, of course, more work to be done around these issues.
But we need to turn the conversation to other topics too. I'd love to see additional destigmatization around menstrual health, sexual health, and the nitty gritties of perimenopause and menopause (including openness around some of the "unsexy" things they do to the body).
Healthier outlooks around weight and size
Ugh, 2025 was a rough year for body positivity. Let's try to do better in 2026, okay?
Recognition that it’s all connected
What would happen if we started to view cultural aspects of womanhood — like the fact that we take on disproportionate amounts of unpaid labor, the pressure we face in the workforce, body image, female friendship, social media misinformation, and the economic implications of being a woman — and fold them into our conversations about women’s health?
Nothing exists in a vacuum, and in 2026, I hope we can have more conversations that loop all these factors into larger conversations about the state of women’s health (both mental and physical).
As always, you can find them right here at Rescripted and BODYTALK. So make sure you're following along.
This Feels Like the Perfect Time to Ditch New Year's Resolutions
2025 was…well, a lot. Especially for women. The manosphere grew. Bodies shrank. Beauty standards became even more exclusive. Speaking of exclusive: DEI programs were rolled back. Women left the traditional work force in droves, the wage gap widened, and discourse about the “ambition gap” just completely missed the mark.
And in light of all that, I’m going to say it: This is not the year we need to be putting unnecessary pressure on ourselves via New Year’s resolutions.
Now, if you love a resolution? You do you. If you want to vow to, say, write in your gratitude journal every morning, be kinder to yourself, spend more time with friends, or adopt another habit that would truly make you feel better, that’s great!
But so often, New Year’s resolutions are about self-improvement, not life-improvement. We vow to lose ten pounds, or get promoted, or find a new job. But right now, it’s pretty clear: The odds are stacked against women. There are messages everywhere that are designed to make us feel like we’re failing, when in reality, we are being failed by systems and standards that don’t match up with reality.
We work to put more inclusive beauty standards into place, only for that progress to be largely undone by Skinnytok and the Ozempic boom. We work to be taken seriously by the medical community, only to be routinely gaslit and dismissed. We work hard to achieve professional success — not just to gain financial independence, but also to promote the causes we believe in. But we’re doing it all with the weight of caregiving in a system that doesn’t view care work as work on our backs, so we fall flat on our faces, time and time again. But instead of understanding our reality, we’re told women are “ruining the workforce” or that we are just “not ambitious”.
I’m not suggesting we take this as a sign to stop trying. But I am saying that maybe this year, we take a moment to think about all the ways we’ve been convinced that we need fixing, when the truth is, we are navigating our world that doesn’t want us to ever feel good enough.
There is too much money to be made off of women’s insecurities. There is too much scapegoating to be done around our vulnerabilities. So why should we buy into the pressure of self-improvement? Right now feels like the perfect time to lean into something else.
In short? To quote Amy Poehler: "I think women should stop improving themselves. I think we did it"
We Need to Unpack the Myth of Being a "Naturally Good Gift-Giver"
Immediately after a holiday that involves a woman receiving a gift, the discourse is always the same. Women express frustration over the gift they received from a male partner being all wrong (or totally non-existent). And the response from the outside world is pretty much always the same: “Give him grace. He’s probably not a naturally good gift-giver”.
I see this happen after Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day, birthdays, and yes, Christmas. A woman will say “it’s not that I wanted something wildly expensive, I just wanted something that felt really thoughtful”. Yet in many cases (especially when the gift-giver is a man), they’re made to feel guilty for not being satisfied with what they receive.
But here’s the thing: Nobody is a "naturally good gift giver".
Women tend to be better at it, sure — not because we were simply born with this innate ability to choose a bespoke gift for everyone on our lists, but because we’ve been socialized to spend a lot of time and emotional energy on thinking about other people’s wants and needs.
Gift-giving is work. Yes, it’s often a labor of love, but it’s labor all the same. It takes time and effort to think about a gift that is tailored to the recipient, procure said gift, wrap it and present it — and too often, all this labor falls solely on women.
That’s (part of) why women are even more exhausted than usual from November through January. We spend so much time doing this labor. For our partners, our family members, our in-laws, our kids, our friends, our kids’ teachers and the people who help us out in our day-to-day — yet we’re not allowed to expect anyone else to send this level of care back our way.
It’s time we stop gaslighting women for expecting someone to put in the labor of gift-giving for their benefit. And if you’re disappointed after this (and every) holiday, you deserve to hear this message: You didn’t “just need to communicate your wishes better”. You deserve to be seen and understood too….just like you see and understand all the people in your life.
Ask Clara:
"What is emotional labor?"