Over the last week, I’ve been sitting inside a realization that feels much bigger than business, community-building or “women’s empowerment.”

Something about the ways women have been taught to perform connection, market intimacy and abandon themselves in order to belong has been unraveling in me in real time.

And judging by the responses flooding my inbox after my last newsletter, I know I’m not alone in it.

This week, I found myself going back to the opening pages of my book.

Words that I wrote more than a year ago.
Words that came to me three years before that.

“I will no longer abandon myself in service to others.”

As I read them three days ago, the message hit me differently.

Because when I first wrote them, I thought I was talking about boundaries.

About burnout.
About exhaustion.
About learning how to say no.

But what I see now is something much deeper.

Women have been trying to create authentic connection inside systems that reward self-erasure.

This is the root of why “women’s empowerment” is facing a reckoning.

Not because women are incapable of intimacy.
Not because women are inherently competitive.
Not because community itself is broken.

But because so many of the systems we’ve inherited taught women that sisterhood-belonging requires self-abandonment.

You can see it everywhere.

The performative sisterhood.
The marketable sisterhood.
The scalable sisterhood.

All of it quietly asking women to become more consumable.

So many of these spaces that claim to connect us require our disconnection from ourselves.

And our nervous systems know it.

Because the body can feel the difference between closeness being felt and proximity being performed.

I experienced this—first hand—inside of the first company I founded with two other women.

Our company was called Have Her Back.

What went on behind closed doors went against everything we claimed to be.

This week, after publishing my newsletter “Growth isn’t always bigger,” women began responding from all over the world.

Not with surface-level reflection.

But with cellular-level recognition.

Women sharing that they’ve been quietly resisting the pressure to scale their businesses.

Women admitting their bodies knew something felt off long before their minds could articulate it.

Women naming the exhaustion of manufacturing perception.

Women questioning inherited definitions of success, visibility and leadership.

And underneath all of it, I kept feeling the same truth rising:

Women are remembering.

Remembering what real community feels like.
Remembering connection versus consumption.
Remembering discernment.

I think it’s why smaller rooms have felt even more powerful to me lately.

Not because I suddenly stopped caring about impact.

But because I no longer believe impact and scale are the same thing.

Intimacy is not small.

Intimacy is powerful.

Maybe real expansion was never about being bigger, louder, everywhere—for all to see.

Maybe it was always about what’s been happening—slowly, quietly, consistently—beneath the surface.

We are coming back into our bodies.
We are coming out of the darkness.
We are coming home to ourselves.

xoxo,

Erin

Sisterhood, another way.

This week, I made a decision that went against everything I’ve been taught about success.

Inside the Hype Women app, I removed more than 1,000 dormant accounts.

I intentionally reduced the visible size of the community down to the 26 women who are actively investing in what we’re building right now.

And immediately, I felt my nervous system react.

Not because it was wrong.

Because it challenged my ego.

For most of my career, I was taught that growth should always look bigger.

Bigger audience.
Bigger rooms.
Bigger numbers.

More visibility.
More virality.
More, more, more.

I built my career in marketing, communications and PR—industries that condition us to believe that the perception we create is the reality the world experiences.

But lately, the vanity metrics haven’t been sitting well with me.

Manufacturing perception is exhausting.

And for women especially, there is so much conditioning around the performance of expansion.

Look successful.
Look desired.
Look in demand.
Look chosen.

Even when it isn’t true.

I think many women are exhausted from trying to sustain the appearance of expansion while quietly abandoning themselves underneath it.

Exhausted from overextending.
Overexplaining.
Overgiving.
Overservicing.

Exhausted from believing they must dilute themselves in order to belong.

What I’m learning is that intimacy requires discernment.

Not everyone belongs in every room.
Not every connection is reciprocal.
Not every audience is community.

And that isn’t rejection.

It’s recalibration.

I would rather sit in a room with 12 emotionally present women than stand in front of thousands performing proximity.

Because true connection can survive discernment.
Real sisterhood does not require self-abandonment.

Some of the most transformative moments of my life have happened in the smallest rooms.

That realization is changing the way I build everything.
It’s changing the way I hold space for my dinners.

Less often.
More intentionally.
Smaller rooms.
Deeper resonance.

I think many women are beginning to realize that bigger and deeper are not always the same thing.

I know I am.

Tonight, doors close for Healing the Sisterhood Wound, the first Hype Women Dinner.

And while there are still a few seats remaining, what matters most to me now is no longer filling rooms for the sake of filling them.

It’s creating spaces that feel alive.
Reciprocal.
Transformative.

Not performative.

Step into the room.

xoxo,

Erin

Years ago, the CEO of the agency—where I worked for more than decade—shared a story he called “Ask the Captain.”

The lesson was simple:

If you want something to happen, go directly to the person with the authority to make the decision.

Don’t waste time circling around people who can’t actually move the ship.

That idea stayed with me for years.
And eventually, I put it into practice.

As I entered year 11, I believed deeply in an initiative we had created internally—and wanted to turn it into a true offering.

The captains disagreed.

They didn’t see the value.
They didn’t believe it was revenue-driving.
They didn’t understand the vision.

So I broke rank.

And I took the idea to the CEO of the holding company that owned us—the captain of my captain.

Ironically, this did not go over well.

I mean, it did for me.

I secured a $3M investment to take this initiative and turn it into a full-fledged company—the first equity investment in a majority women-owned business ever, in global holding company IPG’s 93-year history.

But my CEO did not like that he was no longer my captain.
Power and control is funny like that.

And it revealed something important:

Many people only believe in empowerment for as long as they are the ones holding the power.

Here’s the even more complicated truth.

“Ask the captain” feels empowering until you realize that the person you admire and revere—the one you’ve been asking for direction from—may no longer know the way to where you’re headed.

Sometimes it’s because it’s to a place they’ve never been.
Sometimes it’s because it’s to a place they don’t want you to go.

Even after that experience, I still spent years outsourcing my power.

I kept seeking—and thinking I needed—new captains.

New authority figures.
New institutions.
New gatekeepers.
New people whose approval felt necessary before I trusted myself enough to move.

And I think so many women are conditioned to do exactly this.

We are taught to seek:

approval
validation
permission
authority
consensus

We become consensus-builders.

We gather feedback.
We soften our instincts.
We over-explain our knowing.
We wait for everyone to agree before we allow ourselves to act.

Because somewhere along the way, many of us learned to mistake consensus for safety.

But complete consensus is not where new ideas are born.

The most aligned decisions of my life were not made once everyone agreed with me.
They were made when something inside of me became impossible to ignore.

A captain listens to feedback.
A captain gathers information.
A captain values the crew.

But eventually, a captain must be the one to decide how to chart the course.

Your life will change the moment you stop searching for another captain—and finally become your own.

That shift changed everything for me.

Not because I suddenly had all the answers.
But because I stopped waiting for someone else to authorize my knowing.

This is what sovereignty looks like.
Not in theory.
In practice.

And embodying sovereignty means you make intentional choices every day that honor your shift.

This is what we’ll be stepping into together inside the first Hype Women Dinner next Wednesday at Hype Women HQ in Chicagoland.

Doors close this Friday, May 15.

If you feel the pull, you already know.

Step into the room.

xoxo,

Erin

For years, I’ve watched women over-give, overdeliver, over-accommodate and over-function in relationships, friendships, communities and work.

And this weekend, I realized something.

Underneath so many layers is a core wound: the fear of abandonment.

I know that’s true for me.

I can see it now in how I completely abandoned myself in service to other women who did not have my back.

Friends, family, co-workers, co-founders, clients, industry peers, community members, mentors.

And here’s why we do it. Women learn—from an early age—that expressing our needs, boundaries, value or worth could lead to rejection, disconnection or being left.

So instead of risking abandonment, we abandon ourselves first.

We became easier.

More useful.
More selfless.
More agreeable.

More emotionally available to everyone except ourselves.

We learn to over-perform love instead of believing we’re worthy of receiving it.

Over time, women became so accustomed to self-abandonment that we began calling it kindness.

Service.
Leadership.
Loyalty.

Being a “good woman“ whose sense of self was built inside of her “good girl“ identity.

But it’s a trap.

Because when a woman finally communicates her worth, her needs, her boundaries or her value, the people who benefited from her self-abandonment often do leave.

And we are taught to interpret that loss as proof that we should have stayed smaller.

The departure of people incapable of meeting you where you are is not rejection.

It’s clarification.

Because communicating your worth does not lead to people leaving you.

It leads to being valued by the people actually capable of cherishing you.

The women who are meant for you do not require your self-betrayal in exchange for supposed belonging.

And I think this is part of why so many women feel disconnected right now.

Not because we are incapable of community.

But because we have spent years participating in relationships where proximity was exchanged for performance.

That is not sisterhood.
That is survival.

Healing the sisterhood wound is not just about addressing how women hurt one another.

It’s about acknowledging how women abandon themselves in order to remain chosen.

And activating what becomes possible when we stop.

Next Wednesday, I’m gathering a small group of women—inside Hype Women HQ in Chicagoland—for an intimate dinner and conversation called Healing the Sisterhood Wound.

Not networking.
Not performance.
Not posturing.

Truth.

Real connection.
Real reflection.
Real women.

Doors close this Friday, May 15.

If you feel the pull, you already know.

Step into the room.

xoxo,

Erin

There’s something I’ve realized recently that’s changing the way I move through my work, my relationships and the Hype Women ecosystem itself:

An introduction is not intimacy.

And yet for years, many of us—especially women—have been taught to believe that access equals connection.

We’ve normalized shallow networking.

One-off introductions.
Performative proximity.
Quick exchanges that feel productive but rarely become transformational.

And at their worst, they prove to be purely transactional.

And I say this with compassion, because I participated in it too.

For a long time, I gave away an enormous amount of my energy, labor and social capital freely—introductions, connections, access, recommendations, emotional labor, visibility, strategy, support.

Some of it created beautiful things.
Some of it mattered deeply.
Some of it created movement.

But much of it was static.
Untethered.
Surface-level.

Easy to digest.
Easy to dismiss.
Easy to dis-engage.

The real magic of connection isn’t in a one-off introduction.

It’s in ongoing proximity, interaction and community.
It’s in showing up together repeatedly.
It’s in witnessing each other over time.

Investing.
Participating.
Contributing.

Building trust slowly enough for something real to form.

That realization is changing the way I steward Hype Women moving forward.

I’m no longer interested in endlessly facilitating disconnected access points between people—while bypassing the actual container where intimacy, reciprocity and meaningful relationships are built.

I don’t want to create more spectators.
I want to invite in co-conspirators.

Women willing to step into the room.
Women willing to show up for each other consistently.
Women willing to invest in deeper proximity, not just passive access.

Because visibility alone doesn’t change us.
Community does.

The response to this shift has told me everything.

Some women have stepped closer.
Some have stepped in fully.
Some have said, “Yes, I’m on my way.”

Others have resisted it.
And a few have flat out rejected it.

And that’s okay too.

But this shift isn’t about withholding.
It’s about sovereignty.

For my energy.
For your energy.
For the value of true connection.

For the kind of ecosystem I’ve always been working to build.

I believe women deserve more than shallow networking culture.
I believe women deserve spaces where connection is nurtured.
I believe women deserve depth.

That’s what I’m building with Hype Women.

And if you’ve been feeling the pull toward deeper community, more intentional reciprocity and relationships rooted in genuine proximity instead of performance…

The door is open.

Step in to the sisterhood.

In solidarity,

Erin

P.S. The women who are meant to step in fully won’t need to be convinced. They’ll feel it—and move.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the difference between something working… and something aligning.

Because they’re not the same.

The Fairway dinners worked.
33 dinners. 10 cities. 1,500 women.
Three years of continuous activity.

From the outside, it looked like something to scale.

But internally, I could feel it—

the way I had to push
the way I had to overextend
the way I had to override my own boundaries to keep it moving

If you pause long enough to feel how your choices are landing in your body—
that’s when you know.

Not that something is broken—
but that you’ve evolved past the version of yourself that built it.

And most people miss that moment—because from the outside, everything still looks like it’s working.

So I stopped.

And I sat with what that actually meant—without rushing to replace it.

Not because I didn’t love it.
But because I love who I’m becoming more.

If you want to feel this in real time, I shared more here → [watch the video]

What I’m creating now is rooted in a completely different energy:

Not scale for the sake of scale
Not visibility to feed the algorithm
Not validation disguised as growth

But depth.
Discernment.
Real transformation in the room.

The Hype Women Dinner Series is the next iteration of that.

Smaller.
More intentional.
Free from performance.

And designed for the women who don’t just want to consume content—
they’re ready to make different choices.

Doors are open for the first dinner on May 20.
They close on May 15.

You can step into the room here → hypewomen.com/salon

I’m not over-explaining this.

If it resonates, you already know.

Come sit at the table.

With hope & hype,

Erin

P.S. The women who are meant to be in this room won’t need to be convinced. They’ll feel it—and move.

I’ve been sitting in something this week that I know so many women are feeling—but not naming.

So I’m going to name it.

There’s a pattern across mission-driven, women-led work that is quietly breaking us.

Women are building important work.
Meaningful work.
Work that shifts culture.

And instead of being funded, supported and invested in—
we’re being asked to discount ourselves.

To give access.
To “just share.”
To show up “for the cause.”

And if we don’t?

There’s an undercurrent of judgment.

A subtle suggestion that we’re being greedy.
Or not aligned.
Or not truly about the mission.

Let’s be clear about what that is.

That’s not morality.
It’s misogyny—dressed up as virtue.

Because when women do work—dedicated to a bigger cause—the expectation becomes:

You should do this from the goodness of your heart.
You should give more than you receive.
You should be grateful just to be here.

Meanwhile—

People are building businesses off proximity.
Monetizing connection.
Leveraging visibility.
Creating real financial gain.

From the very ecosystems women are holding.

But the woman leading it?
She’s the one expected not to get paid.

It’s not sustainable.

And it’s why so many women burn out.
Or start to resent the work they once loved.
Or quietly shrink what they’re building to survive.

I’ve felt this tension deeply over the last year.

And I’ve hit a point of clarity:
I am not running a charity.

And neither are the women I respect most.

This is the alchemy point.

Where resentment becomes clarity.
And clarity becomes boundaries.
And boundaries become containers.

That can actually hold the level of work, impact and capital we’re moving.

We don’t need more passive admiration.
We need active investment.

We need people who are willing to:

• pay for the work

• fund the work

• support the work in ways that actually cost them something

Because that’s what makes it sustainable.
That’s what makes it real.
And that’s what allows the work to continue.

If you’re building something right now and feeling this tension—

You’re not wrong.
You’re just seeing clearly.
And what you do next matters.

This is exactly why I built Hype Women the way I did.

A space where support isn’t passive.
Where access isn’t free.
And where women actively invest in each other.

If you’re ready for that kind of room—you already know where to find it.

Join the Hype Women membership →
hypewomen.com/join

xoxo,

Erin

Yesterday, I posted a video.

I said:

“If it doesn’t cost you—it’s not hype.”

And then I showed exactly what I meant.

I bought FIVE copies of my friend ’s new book DEAR MOTHER—out yesterday.

Not to be nice.
Not for content.
Not for accolades.

But because I believe in the power of hype.

Watch the video.

Eighteen minutes later, my friend commented:

She bought the book.

Because she saw the video.
Because she felt it.

Because something in her shifted from...

passively thinking “that’s cool” to actively choosing “I’m doing that too.”

And then another woman did the same.

And then, another woman.

The ripple effect began to play out right in front of our eyes.

Not because we watched it happen.
But because we created it.

That’s it.

This is the whole damn point.

We’ve been taught that support looks like:

• liking

• commenting

• quietly cheering from the sidelines (i.e. your couch, on your phone)

But none of that actually changes outcomes.

None of that puts money in a woman’s pocket.
None of that funds her next idea.
None of that expands what’s possible for her.

Hype is not passive.

It is a transfer of capital.

Human, social, financial, political and spiritual capital.

Said another way:

Money.
Time.
Energy.
Relationships.
Belief.

And the second you understand that, everything changes.

Because now the question isn’t:
“Do I support her?”

It’s:
“Where am I actively investing?”

This is also where most people stop.

Because investment requires something.

It costs you money.
It costs you time.
It costs you attention.
It costs you the comfort of staying on the sidelines.

But that cost?

It’s how we shift systems.

And that’s what we’re building inside Hype Women.

Not just a space where women are seen.

A space where women are backed.

So here’s your invitation:

Don’t just agree with this.

Act on it.

(click on each link below to take action)

• BUY Rea’s book

• AMPLIFY our Hype Her Candidates (check out this week’s slate below 👇)

• DONATE to their campaigns (all linked on hypeher.org)

• JOIN the Hype Women Membership (as low as $44/mo)

• INVEST in a ticket to the Hype Women Dinner

Do 👏 something 👏 that 👏 costs 👏 you 👏.

Another way exists.

This is what it looks like.

This week’s Hype Her Slate

Share the images and copy below on social to flood the feed with women we need in power.

(copy caption below for emails and social posts)

This week’s Hype Her slate is LIVE.

Four women.
Important races.
Real impact.

We’re not watching from the sidelines.
We’re turning attention into action.

✨ Meet the women we’re amplifying:

— Emilia Sykes (OH-13)
— Tabitha Zeigler (IN-08)
— Sarah Blessing (IN-70)
— Sharon Wight (IN-81)

These races are happening NOW.

They’re all live on hypeher.org
—with links to their campaigns and ways to donate.

We’ve made it easy to HYPE.
Now it’s time to ACT.

👇 How to show up:

→ SHARE this post
→ FOLLOW them
→ AMPLIFY their campaigns
→ DONATE to get them over the finish line
→ TALK about them in rooms where they’re not
→ VOTE

Because visibility isn’t vanity.
It’s POWER.

And power—when shared—moves outcomes.

Let’s go.

#hypewomen #hypeher

If you want to go further:

Create your own reel.
Use your voice in the caption.
Tell people why this matters to you.

But if you don’t have time?

👉 This is enough.

Join our Hype Her Movement

We’re building something real.

A coordinated effort to put women in power.

And we need you in it.

We fund them.
We back them.
We hype them.

We make it impossible to ignore them.

Because nothing changes until power changes.

Have a platform?
Sign up to be an Amplifier. 👇

Running for office?
Sign up to be hyped and featured on hypeher.org 👇

hypeher.org

Our first 46 Hype Her Candidates—with primaries and elections as soon as May 5—are up on hypeher.org.

No one is coming to save us.

We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.

xoxo,

Erin

(And I’m writing this from my couch on a slow Sunday morning.)

You’re part of the group of women who have already invested in me—

in my voice, in this work—and I don’t take that lightly.

If you’re reading this, if you’ve been in my world, if you’ve been nodding along, feeling things, seeing …

Read more

Here’s what’s happening:

1. We’re launching the Hype Women Dinner Series

2. We’re dropping our next Hype Her candidate: Amelia Sykes (10AM CT)

We’re not watching this moment.
We’re shaping it.

A shift you may have noticed.

If you’ve been part of this community for a while, you know—

For the first three years, I hosted 33 dinners across 10 cities.

We built something real.
Something meaningful.
Something powerful.

And then… I stopped.

For nearly 10 months, I haven’t hosted a single dinner.

Not because I don’t care.

But because I ran myself all the way to the edge.

I needed to rest.

To heal.
To come back to my body.
To rebuild my nervous system.

And I have.

So, from this place—not from burnout, not from urgency, but from clarity—
something new is taking shape.

And now—

I’m stepping back in.

With intention.

The Hype Women Dinner Series.

What started as Fairway Dinners has evolved.

This next chapter is even more intentional.

More focused.
More expansive.
More personal.

The Hype Women Dinner Series is about bringing intentional and invested women together—in smaller, more intimate rooms—to honor an inherent truth and embody and integrate another way forward.

Save your seat.

Our first gathering is:

Healing the Sisterhood Wound
May 20, 2026
Hype Women HQ · Chicagoland

If you feel that pull—you already know.

Save your seat.

And this is what happens when that energy moves beyond the room—

into elections. 👇

TODAY’S DROP — EMILIA SYKES

Emilia Sykes’ primary is May 5. This is not theoretical.

TODAY, we flood the feed:

👉 Friday, 4/24, 9:00 AM CST — Emilia Sykes
U.S. House — Ohio

Save the photo and caption below and post it on social to join our Movement.

(copy caption below)

Emilia Sykes is running for U.S. House in Ohio—and this matters.

Because representation isn’t theoretical—it impacts real lives, every single day.

She’s running to deliver real results for her community and ensure working families are actually represented in Congress.

Her primary is May 5.

That’s now.

What we do today decides what happens next.

Today, we flood the feed.

Not later.
Not when it’s trending.
Now.

I’m using my platform to amplify her.

If you have a platform—you can too.

Share this.
Fund her race.
Vote.

This is how we change who holds power.

Join us → hypeher.org
Hype Emilia → emiliasykesforcongress.com
Follow + tag her → @emilia_sykes

#hypewomen #hypeher

Hype Emilia

If you want to go further:

Create your own reel.
Use your voice in the caption.
Tell people why this matters to you.

But if you don’t have time?

👉 This is enough.

Join our Hype Her Movement

We’re building something real.

A coordinated effort to put women in power.

And we need you in it.

We fund them.
We back them.
We hype them.

We make it impossible to ignore them.

Because nothing changes until power changes.

Have a platform?
Sign up to be an Amplifier. 👇

Running for office?
Sign up to be hyped and featured on hypeher.org 👇

hypeher.org

Our first 30 Hype Her Candidates—with primaries and elections as soon as May 5—are up on hypeher.org.

No one is coming to save us.

We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.

xoxo,

Erin

Here’s the problem.

I pulled my car over to say this because I could feel it in my body— this anger, this grief, this knowing.

None of this is random.

Not the abuse of power.
Not the violence.
Not the silence.
Not the fact that men continue to harm women and walk free.

It’s all connected.

It comes from one core belief: that men are entitled to women.

To our bodies.
To our time.
To our labor.
To our attention.

Unfettered access.

WATCH

And when that access is denied— when we say no, when we set a boundary, when we stop complying— they retaliate.

With intimidation.
With punishment.
With violence.

This is the system.
This is the through line.
This is the truth.

And I’m done watching it happen and calling it isolated incidents.

It’s not isolated.
It’s patterned.
It’s protected.
It’s power.

So what do we do with this?

Here’s our solution.

We take action.

Not perfectly.
Not quietly.
Not later.

Now.

Meet Hype Her— a political amplification engine mobilizing people with platforms to elect women.

We get women into power.

We back them.
We fund them.
We amplify them.

We make it impossible to ignore them.

Because nothing changes until power changes.

Our First 28 Hype Her Candidates

Our first 28 Hype Her Candidates—with primaries and elections as soon as May 5—are up on hypeher.org.

Learn more.

TODAY, we start.

We’re showing up for two women this week:

1. TODAY, Wednesday, 4/22, 9:00 AM CST — Col. Pam Stevenson U.S. Senate — Kentucky (Primary: May 19)

2. Friday, 4/24, 9:00 AM CST — Emilia Sykes U.S. House — Ohio

(TODAY!) WED DROP — PAM STEVENSON

(copy caption below)

Col. Pam Stevenson is running for U.S. Senate in Kentucky.

This is exactly the kind of race we can’t afford to ignore.

Because we are watching, in real time, what happens when power stays in the wrong hands.

She’s running to bring accountability, justice, and real representation to a system that has never worked for women.

Her primary is May 19.

That’s not far away.

Which means what we do right now matters.

Today, we flood the feed.

Not later. Not when it’s trending. Now.

I’m using my platform to amplify her.

If you have a platform—you can too.

Share this post. Fund her race. Vote.

This is how we change who holds power.

Join us → hypeher.org

Hype Pam → stevensonforsenate.com

#hypewomen #hypeher

FRIDAY DROP — EMILIA SYKES

(copy caption below)

Emilia Sykes is running for U.S. House in Ohio.

And this matters.

Because representation isn’t theoretical—it impacts real families, real lives, every single day.

She’s running to deliver real results for her community and ensure working families are actually represented in Congress.

Her primary is May 5.

That’s right now.

Which means what we do today matters.

Today, we flood the feed.

Not later. Not when it’s trending. Now.

I’m using my platform to amplify her.

If you have a platform—you can too.

Share this post.

Fund her race.

Vote.

This is how we change who holds power.

Join us → hypeher.org

Hype Emilia → emiliasykesforcongress.com

#hypewomen #hypeher

If you want to go further:

• Create your own reel.

• Use your voice in the caption.

• Tell people why this matters to you.

But if you don’t have time?

This is enough.

No one is coming to save us. We must save ourselves.

xoxo,

Erin

There’s a lot of anger right now.

And honestly?

Good.

Watch.

Because what we’re seeing—
the abuse, the entitlement, the violence against women—
has always been there.

The difference now is people are paying attention.

But attention doesn’t change anything.

Power does.

So we’re done reacting.

We’re organizing.

HYPE HER

hypeher.org

Yesterday, we launched Hype Her—a political amplification engine mobilizing people with platforms to elect women.

One candidate at a time.
Coordinated drops.
Flood the feed.

This isn’t just about awareness. It’s about turning vibes into votes.

Two ways to participate. We need both.

1. HYPE: Use your platform to amplify.

2. BE HYPED: We’ll help you get elected.

Our first 8 Candidates

Our first eight Hype Her Candidates—with primaries and elections in May and June—are up on hypeher.org.

Hype Her

This week, we start.

We’re showing up for two women:

👉 Wednesday, 4/22, 9:00 AM CST — Col. Pam Stevenson U.S. Senate — Kentucky (Primary: May 19)

👉 Friday, 4/24, 9:00 AM CST — Emilia Sykes U.S. House — Ohio

Here’s what to do (takes 2 minutes):

1. Save the images below (press and hold on images to download)

2. Copy + paste the captions

3. Schedule BOTH posts right now

No scrambling midweek. No “I forgot.” No overthinking.

Just set it—and you’re in.

WEDNESDAY DROP — PAM STEVENSON

Col. Pam Stevenson is running for U.S. Senate in Kentucky.

She’s running to bring accountability, justice and real representation to a system that hasn’t worked for women.

Her primary is May 19.

Today, we flood the feed.

I’m using my platform to amplify her.

If you have a platform—you can too.

Support her. Amplify Her. Hype Her.

🔗 hypeher.org

🔗 https://www.stevensonforsenate.com/

#hypewomen #hypeher

FRIDAY DROP — EMILIA SYKES

Emilia Sykes is running for U.S. House in Ohio.

She’s running to deliver real results for her community and ensure working families are represented in Congress.

Her primary is May 5.

Today, we flood the feed.

I’m using my platform to amplify her.

If you have a platform—you can too.

Support her. Amplify Her. Hype Her.

🔗 hypeher.org

🔗 https://sykes.house.gov/

#hypewomen #hypeher

If you want to go further:

• Create your own reel.

• Use your voice in the caption.

• Tell people why this matters to you.

But if you don’t have time?

👉 This is enough.

No one is coming to save us. We must save ourselves.

xoxo,

Erin

Make space for women.

Not a strategy.

Not a plan.

Just… a knowing.

And before I could overthink it, I did the most me thing possible:

I bought the domain.

Here’s the story:

At the time, I thought it was about opportunity.

About creating more seats.

More visibility.

More access.

I thought I was building something.

What I didn’t realize was—

I was tapping into something that had already been built.

Because women—especially Black women—have been making space for a very long time.

Long before we had language for it.

Long before we had hashtags for it.

Long before we were invited into the rooms they were shaping.

This week, as I’ve been watching everything unfolding with NASA and Artemis, I can’t stop thinking about that.

About how we talk about “progress” like it just… happens.

Like one day, suddenly, women are here.

On the mission.

In the room.

At the table.

But that’s not how it works.

It never has been.

Katherine Johnson.

Dorothy Vaughan.

Mary Jackson.

Christine Darden.

They were doing the math that got us to the Moon.

Quietly.

Brilliantly.

Without the recognition they deserved.

And now—

Vanessa Wyche.

Amber Alexis Taylor.

Kiarre Dumes.

They are helping lead the missions forward.

Same lineage.

That’s what gets me.

Not just progress—

continuity.

Because we love a moment.

We love to celebrate the “first.”

The “now.”

The “look how far we’ve come.”

But we don’t always stop to ask:

Who made this possible?

And even more than that—

What are we doing with the space that was made for us?

Because here’s the part I keep coming back to:

Making space isn’t something that happened.

It’s something that is happening.

Still.

Every day.

In ways that are big and visible…

and in ways that are quiet and unseen.

It’s in the woman who speaks up in a room where it would be easier not to.

It’s in the woman who brings someone else into the conversation.

It’s in the woman who chooses to be fully herself instead of shrinking to fit.

It’s in the woman who says:

There’s room for me here.

And I’m going to make sure there’s room for you, too.

That’s what that download was.

Not an idea.

A reminder.

Make space for women.

Not just in outer space.

Everywhere.

Because the future?

It doesn’t just happen.

We make space for it.

xoxo,

Erin

A game-winning shot.

0.3 seconds left.

Chaos in the arena.

And in the stands—

a mom.

(Christine Hurley, to be exact: mom to head coach of UConn.)

Arms in the air.

Screaming, “HOLY FCKING SHT!!!”

Fully in it.

No filter.

No chill.

ALL IN.

And I thought: Damn.

Before the accolades.
Before the audience.
Before the awe-inspiring moments.

Before the world is watching, there is a woman behind you, beside you or before you…

Fully invested.
Feeling every moment as if it were her own.

She sees it before you do.
She believes it before it’s proven.
She celebrates it before it’s recognized.

That’s not small.

That’s how ...

... confidence is built.

... courage is formed.

... creativity is instilled.

THIS is where it starts.

I think so much of who we become is shaped in these moments—when someone believes in us before there’s proof. Before there’s validation. Before the world claps.

That kind of belief doesn’t just feel good.

It changes what we believe is possible.

And here’s the part we don’t talk about enough:

If your circle isn’t reacting to your wins with THAT level of belief, energy, and hype…it’s time for some spring cleaning.

Because the right people don’t just support you quietly.

They FEEL it with you.
They AMPLIFY your wins.
They EXPAND you.

So I’ll leave you with this:

Who has been that person for you?

And just as importantly—who are you that person for?

I’m lucky enough to have a mom who thinks I hung the moon and can land among the stars—with every wish I make and risk I take. I hope you have someone who does the same for you.

xoxo,

Erin

When I wake up each morning, I come downstairs to my living room, turn on the fireplace, light two candles, make an Americano and pull three oracle cards.

Rituals will save you. Unless they kill you first.

Think about it. What rituals do you participate in—every day—without question? These are your daily habits that have become so embedded in the fabric of your being that you somehow lost this truth along the way: they are choices.

For the past year and a half, I have been on a slow, uncomfortable, identity-shifting journey to explore my daily habits—and to ask myself this potent question: Is it still working?

What got me here got me here. But it wasn’t going to get me out of this place—a place that was no longer serving me.

So, I examined my relationships (all of them), my ways of working, my identities (woman, wife, mother, sister, daughter, friend, founder, entrepreneur, activist), my philosophy around exercise and movement, my alcohol consumption, my physical appearance, my psychological state.

And I changed everything. (You can read and listen to what and how here.)

This morning, I pulled these three cards:

A three-card spread is a way to look at past influences, present circumstances and future potential.

So, while “Hostilities: Conflict, Unrest” landing in the “future potential” column could be viewed as a dreaded omen, I received it as an invitation to consider.

Here’s what these cards told me today:

Humanity depends on ALL of us recognizing this truth.

Feminine and masculine energies live inside each of us.
They don’t control us unless we allow them too.

When balanced and expressed in an embodied, healthy way their co-existence is magic.

We MUST recognize where toxic masculinity has taken hold of our lives, our families, our communities, our country.

And then, it is our great responsibility—and opportunity—to right this ship.

I invite you to ask yourself these questions:

Where is toxic masculinity showing up in:

1. my body?

2. my marriage?

3. my parenting?

4. my career?

5. my daily habits?

6. my traditions?

7. my relationships?

8. my belief system?

9. my goals?

10. my aspirations?
    

It’s there.
It’s always there.

But we DO get to decide how much space it occupies.
And it is our birthright to make a shift to re-balance our equilibrium.

If you’ve been waiting for a sign to turn it all around, this is it.

xoxo,

Erin

I’m sure you’ve all seen it.

The now-viral video of McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski (“Chris K”) trying to eat and market “The Big Arch.”

I won’t attempt to tell you ALL the ways this man is able to make the simple act of eating—and talking about—a burger deeply awkward, uncomfortable and cringe-worthy in a short one minute and 21 seconds.

You MUST see it for yourself. (And the parody videos and frame-by-frame breakdowns are truly entertaining.)

But what I will tell you is why I am so uniquely positioned to troll him myself. (And I did. Watch it here.)

You see, I EARNED the right.

Because Chris K and I go wayyyyyyyyyy back.

McDonald’s and I go wayyyyyy back.

And while I love words and expressing myself through writing more than almost anything in this world, for this takedown, you need to WATCH—and HEAR—it directly from me.

So, please enjoy Part 1 here:

… and Part 2 here.

I said this in my video and I’ll put it in writing here:

I am not afraid of Chris K.

I am not afraid of McDonald’s.

I am not afraid of Corporate America.

I am not afraid of that person sitting in our White House.

We have the power to take our lives back from the small faction of people who never deserved the power and influence that they are using to hold us hostage.

And together, we will.

Subscribe

xoxo,

Erin

A trust fall is defined as an exercise designed to build trust between people, in which one person stands with their back toward a partner or group and deliberately falls backward, with the expectation of being caught.

Expectation. That’s the word that stands out the most to me in the definition.

So much of our hope and willingness to depend on others is wrapped up in expectation. Do we believe that we will be supported when we need it?

Trust falls feel terrifying when you don’t know the people who have the power to let you fall; when you don’t believe that they care; when you haven’t yet built the trust—or it’s been broken, time and time again.

But that’s the point of this activity, isn’t it? It’s supposed to create an accelerated feeling of connection and camaraderie—to speed up our willingness to let go and hold on with people we know—or feel—little to nothing about?

Maybe.

That’s what was happening for me on a warm, perfect Hawaiian summer day in August of 1996. I was new. I was unknown. I was the outlier. Everyone else catching and falling during that exercise grew up with each other from age six-14; they had build foundation and memories with one another at the same school since kindergarten. (I, on the other hand, had lived in five states and attended five different schools during that same 12 -year period.)

Whether or not they trusted each other was established. My relationships with them were not yet tethered…to anything.

I was brought back to that exact moment of anxiety, exposure and isolation as I watched Bad Bunny throw his body back with abandon into a sea of loving, supportive outstretched arms during his Super Bowl Halftime Show last night.

I held my breath.
My chest tightened.
My eyes widened with anticipation and awe.

Read more

TW: eating disorder

Can I keep it really real for a minute?

It’s really f*cking exhausting to be a woman.

This looks like an innocent photo of a pastry and coffee.

But it took me 6 hours to decide if I was going to eat this.

Here’s why:

I’m 7 lbs up from my ideal weight right now. It happens. I’m on my period, traveled for my kid’s soccer tournament this weekend, am out of my normal food and exercise routine.

So, the “rule” (yes, I have many) is that I don’t get to indulge in any empty calorie food until I’m back to fighting weight.

But when I travel, I LOVE to find cute, lovely coffee shops and try their almond croissants and chai teas.

It’s a special treat.

It’s a date with myself.

It’s purely for pleasure.

But I wasn’t going to be able to do that on this trip to NYC. I was, after all, in weight violation.

So, I had a talk myself in the Lyft on the way to the airport at 5:30 am in Chicago: okay, Erin. Keep it tight on this trip. No falling off track. Protein or bust.

I went through a very dangerous eating disorder in my 20s. Like the kind that had my company’s HR department calling me in to express their concern and discuss intervention.

The confusing part? Most people said I’d never looked better.

So, I know the pain, anxiety, fear and paralysis that comes with being in the throes of an eating disorder.

I’m not there anymore.

But I do carry around the weight of the relentless internal body monologue. Every woman does.

The back and forth about how you feel about your body, your outfit, food, exercise. It’s truly exhausting.

So, after dropping my bags at my hotel, I popped into a cute cafe, with the plan to get an Americano and get after the protein bar in my bag.

Read more

And 30 seconds of your time could change everything.

It’s a transfer of capital that will come back to you, ten-fold.

I’m experiencing a “Sliding Doors” moment that just might turn into one of the most important core memories of my life.

But I can’t do it without you.

To my incredible Substack community, my debut book has now been out of her cocoon for two weeks.

I hope you’ve read, are reading or plan to read her.

I hope she makes you feel seen.

I hope you know you’re not alone.

In the spirit of HYPE, I need your help: please head over to this Oprah’s Book Club post on Instagram to nominate HYPE WOMEN in the comments.

Nominate HYPE WOMEN!

And don’t forget to tag me (@erin.gallag.her)

We are in this together.

Thank you for having my back.

xoxo,

Erin

🦋🦋🦋

Last week, I spoke to the full moon and told her about everything I desire for my book.

I CANNOT believe she will be in your hands tomorrow. I’m overwhelmed with excitement, anticipation and profound joy. This is the beginning of something very powerful. My book is an accelerator for our collective healing.

If you haven’t ordered your copy yet, please make today the day. YOU can be a part of amplifying my book and our Hype Women Movement into the stratosphere.

Order your copy now!

Top 5 Must-Read Books for Fall

Oh, ya know.

Just my book—hanging out, side-by-side, with REESE WITHERSPOON’S—in L.A. Magazine’s October issue of “By the Book: 5 Must-Read New Releases for Fall 2025.”

☠️☠️☠️

It’s happening, y’all.

She’s scratching at the inside of her cocoon.
She wants to be in the hands of every person who needs her.
She is ready to break out.

🦋📖🦋

Read the full piece here

A “Mean Girls Day” Karmic Re-write

On Mean Girls Day, HYPE WOMEN took over.

Thank you STACY LONDON for being my sister for life.
Thank you PAULETTE GOTO for the cake of all cakes!
Thank you CHRISTINA KARIN for gifting a pre-release copy of my book to every woman in the room.

Join our Movement

Thank you to all the Hype Women who are fueling our collective movement and the success of this book. You are EACH an integral part of my journey, healing, growth and metamorphosis. We are in this together.

Order today! Get her tomorrow!

Get your copy!

WE ARE IN THIS TOGETHER!

xoxo,

Erin