Hi! Welcome!

Congratulations! By simply reading this, you are officially welcomed into the family. The Bridge family is made up of an amazing group of women who are smart, funny, successful, supportive, anxious, insecure, and beautifully imperfect. You’ll fit in just perfectly. Caution: Talk of UTI home remedies ahead.

I’ll start by telling you that I have a huge family full of bad bitches. I’ve got a mom who may or may not be my best friend (she’s totally my best friend), a forensic scientist sister who showed me what kicking ass looks like, three aunts that are always willing to give waayy too much information about their sex lives, and a gaggle of cousins and second cousins whose effortless coolness always knocks me down a rightful peg. We are constantly prying into each other’s lives, talking in probably (definitely) too much detail about our relationships, work lives, and families.

I had the idea for this project after realizing how little I was getting from the articles in women’s magazines. I could get better advice on life, love, and work from my dog... he is a REALLY good boy. I recognized that the best advice I was getting was from the women in my family, because they actually have my best interest at heart. There’s a level of love, kindness, and realness in their wisdom. They are the ones who get real with me about how to deal with the three luscious black hairs that grow out of my chin.

I needed a way to collect and revisit the great advice I was receiving from the wise women around me. Hence, The Bridge was born.

The project has branched out from just the women in my family. I have met some remarkable women. All I had to do was start asking them uncomfortable questions (which I do anyway) and write down their answers. I wanted to hear the real women in my life talk about issues that affect them to gain a better understanding of their lives.

In working on this project for the last 6 months, I’ve struggled to accurately depict the women I was featuring. I realized that even I was attempting to put each woman in a neat box. Even as a woman, I was trying to portray perfect women who are wholesome yet funny, family oriented yet career driven, trendsetters yet effortless. A big moment for me was realizing that all of these women, including myself, are not all of these things. Every woman in this issue doesn’t need to check every box. I trust you, as my reader, to know that we can’t expect every woman to represent every experience. All we can do is talk about our own experience in a meaningful and grounded way, and then listen to the experiences of those around us with compassion. There are going to be stories that speak to you and maybe stories that don’t. Take what you need and just try to keep an open mind to the rest.

I encourage you to mark your copy up; highlight things that inspire you, underline things to remember, scribble your thoughts in the margins. I hope that your copy will find a cozy spot on your bookshelf and that you might remember an article about something you are dealing with in the future and revisit it. I pulled out some of the ideas that resonated with me in orange. Keep an eye out.

My goal for this publication is to bridge the gap (sorry I had to) between women of different generations. Though there are certainly differences between women of different ages, I have found that much much more is universal. I want to give you the power to look at the women in your life with curiosity and appreciate them for their depth, intelligence, and wisdom. And even more than that, I want to give you the power to look within yourself for stories that other women might benefit from hearing. I want to highlight some amazing women that I know in this first issue and give you the resources to start talking to the women in your own life. I am aiming to build a community that mimics a family: sharing advice, stories, and of course, dirty jokes. I want this manual to tell the stories of women who otherwise might not have had their stories told; your grandma, your ~eccentric~ neighbor, and yeah, even you.

I’ll act as the narrator, giving you the debriefing on each woman before you dive directly into their story. Look to my note at the beginning of each piece for some insight. Think of me like the prettier version of Ira Glass (I wish).

XO,