issue five: everything you've ever wanted
what happens next?
January has been the longest year of our lives. In the chaos, my friend and coach, Meredith, helped me get clarity on the right path to take at a career crossroads and pushed me to define my deepest fears and “deepest possibilities.” A coffee conversation with Clara made me realize that I have everything I’ve ever wanted. Yet, instead of pausing in that fulfillment, I’ve found myself restless, in perpetual motion. My work is in envisioning the life I want to live on a ten-year horizon, and designing my days with intentionality, around what truly matters—the people and the activities that bring me the most meaning and the most joy. This year, I hope to answer “what’s next?” in the context of “what is enough?”
Since 2025 officially starts in February, now is a good time to go through the exercise of designing your ideal year. May our collective good gossip help you ✨ manifest ✨ the 2025 of your dreams.
The Classifieds
Fiona, CEO and founder of Youthforia, is working on something new. She’s looking to connect with moms who are keen on finding clean products for their kids. Reach out at fiona@youthforia.co to chat.
Slant’d is a nonprofit independent publishing house empowering creativity in the AAPI community. They’re currently hiring for a number of roles across their core business, magazine, and book teams. Take a look at the openings, and reach out to chery.sutjahjo@gmail, if you’d like to learn more.
Jessica is a technologist in healthcare. She started the newsletter, Vitals, to share weekly updates on local healthtech events in the Bay Area. She wants to connect folks to cool events and cool people. Send hot tips to jlfajardo7@gmail.com.
For trans folks and allies in the Bay Area, consider getting involved with the San Francisco Community Health Center. Trans Thrive provides everything from crisis care to gender-appropriate clothing to legal counsel to community groups to medical care advice. The trans community really needs the extra support right now. The SF Community Health Center is hiring (21 job openings!) and they welcome volunteers.
Now LA-based, Mackenzie is in search of a book club that ideally congregates off of the 110 or the 405. She has impeccable taste and introduced me to Sally Rooney and Otessa Moshfegh before either of them became mainstream (although we don’t talk about Intermezzo). Send book club invites to mackenzie.bohannon@gmail.com.
We’re moving again. I’m in search of small-batch furniture and decor designers and marketplaces—think Arthaus and ARJ.—and would love your recs.
Resources
Genevieve is a 28-year veteran in design and tech leadership and was the first person to believe in me as a designer. She continues to be someone I look up to, both professionally and personally. She recently launched her career and leadership coaching practice, Cherry Red Coaching. She’s offering free slots each Tuesday in February exclusively for Good Gossip community members and their close contacts. Book today to access her wisdom on design, development, a career in tech, or just being a good human.
Local-to-LA events
Emily, the endlessly talented founder of Fleurvoyant, is hosting a Galentine’s Day Flower Bouquet Workshop at Anima Mundi on February 14th at 4pm.
Two friends and I started a salon dinner series. Our intention is to build community and to encourage conversation around ideas—I come back to Eleanor Roosevelt’s quote, “great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, and small minds discuss people.” Right now, it’s limited to friends, but there’s a future in which it’s open to the public. If you’re intrigued by the concept, send me a message.
Recommendations
This The Daily interview: Dr. Anna Lembke, the author of Dopamine Nation says that we’re in an era of endemic narcissism—excessive self-interest, entitlement, and a lack of empathy for others are the norm rather than the exception. Centering your life only around yourself and your needs, believing that you are more important than others, seeking attention and admiration, are all trademarks of narcissism—and of social media. She theorizes that (doom)scrolling through the lives of others is a form of therapy, a way to detach and disconnect from…ourselves. In other words, we only care about ourselves, then get sick of ourselves, and become voyeurs to escape our narcissism. She recommends interventions like device-free vacations (as in, traveling without an electronic device entirely), which we’re going to attempt in March.
Relatedly, in our salon, we talked about how we’ve simultaneously become obsessed with our survival as individuals and dismissive of the threats to our survival as a species. Will it matter that you’ve gotten your biological age to 21 and are using unbleached toilet paper on your pristine butthole when your children can’t walk outside without a gas mask and poliovirus is in your water system?
A personal board of advisors: Since graduating, I’ve collected advisors who serve as confidantes and mentors on personal and professional decisions. Right now, it’s a medley of former bosses, colleagues, mentors, and friends whom I truly and deeply admire. These are people I text or call whenever I’m in a moment of uncertainty. These are the giants whose shoulders I’m standing on.
Take a moment for music, for art, for finding each other beautiful:
That’s it for the first second issue of 2025.
Since we’re just getting off the ground, I can promise that it’ll only get better. Let me know what you think, what you’d like to see more or less of. And if you have good gossip to share, send it in 💞.