Real Girls Obsessions Part 7

The group-chat-approved books, people, products, and internet rabbit holes currently winning.

Yep, we’re back again. Because apparently this is who we are now: aggressively recommending books, internet people, skincare, podcasts, weirdly effective moisturizers, emotionally supportive cats, and badasses on Instagram who somehow understand us and our hormones better than most doctors did in 2009.

As always: no trend forecasting. No “must-have summer edit.” No pretending every product changed our lives spiritually.

Just things that are legit earning their place lately!

Books We’re Devouring

If You Give a Cat a Hot Flash by Alexis Dunne, MD - Tiny menopausal cat chaos with massive emotional support energy.

Why We Love It: Yes, I worked on this one with Alexis, Carrie, Brad, and Anna and it ended up being one of the most fun creative experiences I’ve had in years.

Somewhere between the group texts, the creative process, and all of us realizing how absurdly recognizable this overheated little feline had become… Menopawsy quietly evolved into the unofficial mascot for every woman currently overheating, overstimulated, emotionally fried, under-slept, and suddenly furious at underwire bras.

Strangers by Belle Burden - This book got under my skin in the way the best memoirs do.

Why We Love It: It’s about marriage, loneliness, identity, emotional distance, and the slow unraveling that can happen inside relationships long before anyone officially admits something is wrong. The writing is beautiful without feeling performative about being beautiful, which feels very rare right now. You know those books where you keep stopping because a line hits too close to home and suddenly you’re just staring into space rethinking your entire emotional history? That kind.

People and Voices We’re Following & Loving

TMI Aunt Tammi on IG - Menopause, marriage, exhaustion, wine, lipstick on her teeth, and the mystery of Harold.

Why We Love Her: Tammi talks about midlife in a way that feels immediate and recognizable instead of polished or performative. There’s usually a wine glass involved, lipstick on her teeth, and Harold quietly existing in the background while she narrates hormones, marriage irritation, body changes, sleep issues, and suddenly having absolutely no tolerance left for unnecessary noise or nonsense.

What makes her content work is that it feels like an actual woman talking honestly about what this phase of life looks like instead of trying to package it into inspiration or advice.

Amanda - Midlife Finds on IG - Midlife product finds, beauty rabbit holes, and tiny things making life feel slightly more pulled together.

Why We Love Her: Amanda’s page feels like having one very informed friend who’s constantly texting: “WAIT. I FOUND SOMETHING.”

Skincare finds. Midlife beauty products. All the things that somehow make daily life easier, less swollen, and less chaotic after another night of hormone roulette and garbage sleep.

What I like is that she’s a real person sharing things she actually uses, not somebody performing a perfectly curated internet life. The recommendations land more like group-chat intel than influencer content.

And at this stage of life, women sharing practical survival information with each other feels genuinely useful.

PS: what started as a dermatology appointment for her son led to a melanoma diagnosis for herself. Now she’s sharing her journey, raising awareness, and reminding all of us how easy it is to put ourselves last on the list of people we take care of.

Matt Hyams on IG - Perimenopause reenactments so accurate they should qualify as documentary footage.

Why We Love Him: Matt’s entire account is basically him impersonating his perimenopausal wife with terrifying precision.

The facial expressions. The hormone rage. The overstimulation. The sudden irritation over absolutely everything. The “don’t touch me but also why aren’t you emotionally available?” energy. The running commentary about sleep, body temperature, exhaustion, and hating noises.

Every woman (me especially) watching immediately recognizes herself somewhere in it.

What makes the content land isn’t just the humor. It’s the fact that you can tell he’s actually paying attention. He’s observing the emotional swings, the exhaustion, the sensory overload, the weird contradictions of midlife, and turning them into something funny instead of dismissing women as dramatic or “crazy.”

Which, frankly, is rarer than it should be.

Lauren Rubin on Cake For Dinner — journaling, anxiety, gratitude, and practical ways to get unstuck.

This episode with Laura Rubin, founder of AllSwell Creative and author of The Big Unlock, was one of those conversations that makes you immediately want to grab a notebook. Lauren and Cake For Dinner host Keesha Scott talk with Lauren about journaling as more than emotional dumping or diary writing. She shares practical ways writing can help calm anxiety, recognize patterns, reconnect with yourself, and shift your mindset in small but meaningful ways. The conversation covers everything from future-focused anxiety and gratitude practices tied to the five senses to her “4x4” journaling method and what she calls “dopamine push-ups.” Grounded, thoughtful, and genuinely useful without drifting into self-help fluff. Also, I highly recommend subscribing to Cake For Dinner on YouTube if you want conversations that sound like real people talking about real life instead of another polished internet self-improvement lecture.

Cat & Nat on Instagram AND Cat & Nat on Substack - The realities of marriage, motherhood, and being needed by everyone constantly.

Yes, I fully fell into the Cat & Nat universe. Part of what makes them work is that they talk about motherhood after the cute stage is over. Not the curated little-kid era… the harder, messier phase where your kids are older, your marriage has history, your body is changing in real time, and your patience is hanging by a thread some days. Their content has this running undercurrent of “I love these people deeply but if one more person asks me where their charger is, I may disappear into the woods,” which feels wildly recognizable. I also appreciate how openly they talk about parenting older kids, marriage fatigue, hormones, mental load, and the exhaustion of being everybody’s default person. It feels more like overhearing a brutally honest kitchen conversation than consuming “content,” which is probably why so many women relate to them.

BONUS: Substack as a Platform - Not in a “build your creator business” way. In a “holy shit, real humans are still capable of honest thoughts on the internet” way.

The reason I keep loving Substack is because some people are finally writing like people again. Less optimized content. Less pretending. Less polished “5 ways to become your highest self before 7 AM” energy. More honesty. More contradiction. More “here’s what actually happened.”

Products That Deserve Their Own Thank-You Note

ROC Glow Stick Eye Balm - The fastest way to look slightly more awake than you feel.

Remember Amanda from our favorite IG voices section above? This was one of her recommendations and she was absolutely right about it. I’ve been pairing the Glow Stick with the RoC Retinol Correxion Eye Cream at night and the combo is genuinely helping the whole under-eye situation look brighter, smoother, and less exhausted overall.

There’s something deeply midlife about becoming emotionally attached to anything that makes you look even 11% more rested.

Tiny little glow stick. Major morale support.

Dr. Melaxin Dark Spot Cream - One of those “wait… why does my skin suddenly look better?” products.

Another recommendation from Amanda, and again… she was right.

As a general rule, I’m skeptical of basically every skincare promise on earth at this point. But this one slowly turned into a product I kept reaching for because my skin genuinely started looking calmer, brighter, and less angry overall.

Not “I suddenly look 24” results. More realistic “okay wait… I actually look rested and slightly more alive” results.

And at this stage of life, that’s enough to make me loyal.

Melt For You and Good Vibes by Womaness - Feel-good midlife body products that actually understand the assignment.

Why We Love Them: The pairing of these two is kind of magical. They help with dryness, comfort, irritation, and generally keeping things moist and feeling good without creating some swampy situation nobody asked for.

And I genuinely love what Womaness founders Michelle Jacobs and Sally Mueller are doing with the brand. They talk about menopause, hormones, sex, body changes, and vaginal health in a direct, grown-woman way instead of making everything feel awkward or shame-filled.

It reads more like women talking openly to other women instead of a company trying to “educate” us about our own bodies.

That’s a wrap for Part 7. Just a running list of things currently making midlife feel a little glowier, funnier, easier, calmer, and slightly less unhinged.

And if something recently earned a spot in your group chat, your headphones, your nightstand, or your late-night scroll… send it my way and I’ll add to our growing list of Real Girls Guide Obsessions. We’re all basically comparing notes now anyway. And I wouldn’t have it any other way!

#RealGirlsGuidetoMidlife #RealGirlsObsessions #NoGatekeeping #Glow

We’ve earned every wrinkle. Might as well make more laugh lines together.
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