in defense of the earnest girl

just the hits #30

You definitely know an earnest girl (or several of them). You may even be one.

It was Anne Hathaway’s entire awards season where she was honored for her performance in Les Misérables (only to be unnecessarily mocked and piled on).

It’s when Hillary Clinton, Nikki Haley, and Kamala Harris showed up, prepared and poised, to debate Donald Trump (and won on every policy measure), and were called ‘know it alls’ (or worse).

It’s Taylor Swift, simply existing.

Some of my favorite creators are earnest girls - Achieng Agutu, Kellie Gerardi,

Your Rich BFF

, Palak Patel. They show up as their full selves, joyfully and seemingly without care for those who may call them ‘too much.’

I’m a former earnest girl, and I want to be one again. I want to show up this fully and joyfully, but tamper down this energy because I’m afraid of being called ‘cringe’ or a try hard.

The truth is that I do try hard. My kids call me cringe when I do anything with a drop of enthusiasm. I’m incapable of playing it cool. And for the past year, I lost a lot of my confidence and dimmed this light, thinking I was just too much.

No longer. I’m choosing to bring back my earnest self, which feels like a little act of resistance in such dark times.

I’m going to post the imperfect videos, photos, and captions. In short, I’m bringing my Threads energy over to Instagram.

I’m going to take public pride in the things I’m really proud of, like That Desi Spark or this Substack, and giving extra love to We’re Speaking. While it may not have sold as many copies as I’d hoped, the lessons and observations in that book ring truer than they ever have.

I’m also taking a page out of Zarna’s literal book and asking for what I need. I would very much like you to share this newsletter with someone you think would enjoy it, please. And thank you.

I’m going to be excited about the little things - the incredible book I just finished reading, a favorite recipe that my entire family enjoys, a rainbow soft serve cone from an ice-cream truck, a nostalgic playlist. You may find it annoying, and that’s fine. I’m still going to share it earnestly.

Here’s to the earnest girl. May we respect them, and may we be them.

Catch up on the latest posts:

the plan - april 2025

the economy, emergency departments, and two small things to do for yourself

what are your joy triggers?

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• It’s my goal to do full pushups (currently doing them with my knees on the ground). This Reel helped me get a few, high-quality full pushups during my workouts this week.

• I am ‘reading glasses’ years old, and promptly bought these after trying on

  Laura Brounstein
  ’s. I look slightly ridiculous, but my eyes are a lot happier and less tired after the workday.

• I’m in full agreement with

  Sabrina Molu
  on what should be tariffed. Some of my additions: haul videos, ‘controversial opinion’ content, when people say ‘well, actually’, text conversations that could be a 5 minute phone call.

• The Guilt Pill was giving me ‘wait, is this f’ing play about us?’, and I couldn’t put it down. It’s such a fantastic novel.

• These two practices have helped my kids (and me!) de-escalate when we start to get overwhelmed.

• Little things I finally did after months of saying “I’ll do it tomorrow”: organized my kids’ bookshelf in our kitchen, planted lettuce, tomatoes, and basil in our Click & Grow gardens, picked up my altered clothes and dropped off some jewelry for repairs.

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Please take a break - or several.

xo,
HPN