What comes after the Year of the Girl?

But 2023 is over now. What comes next?

I largely tried to stay out of the “girl” conversations last year. Girl math annoyed me at first, as the trend seemed to play into the stereotype that women are bad with money (even if I’ve done some of my own creative accounting from time to time). Then the backlash to girl math came, and that grated as well. What, girls can’t joke around about budgeting? Surely the TikToks and tweets were meant to be lighthearted, not indicative of an entire gender’s financial prowess. 

Girl dinner made me laugh, then cringe; when opinion writers said women were infantilizing themselves by playing into the trends, I cringed harder. (I’m not convinced silly videos are an insidious ploy to reverse feminism.) And while I personally enjoyed the magic and camaraderie of the Eras Tour and found it satisfying to see Taylor Swift and Beyoncé dominating the pop culture landscape, I wasn’t particularly shocked, as many seemed to be, that women spend money on things they like. If two male artists put on the top tours of the year, would it be newsworthy? The avalanche of articles about women’s interests driving the economy almost felt condescending. The framing was also far too simplistic. Plenty of women could not relate to the trends at all; we don’t all want to wear pink and see Barbie, or listen to pop music. There are many types of girlhood.

Still, there was a lot of collective joy to be found in the trends. So many women relished them; I loved hearing about my friends’ versions of girl dinner, and liked all of their Instagram stories about their hot girl walks. In many ways, the trends were a reminder that, indeed, not everything needs to be so serious. Take a walk, make some boxed mac and cheese—it’ll be okay.

But because I’m a financial journalist, I can’t help but be a little serious (see: my reaction to girl math). All of the girlhood revelry reminded me of the lipstick index, or the economic theory that sales of affordable luxuries like lipstick rise when times are bad. Though the economy, broadly, is doing well, between the pandemic, political unrest, and inflation, it’s been a challenging few years; it makes sense that we’d all want to embrace the things that bring us unfettered joy; that make us feel youthful and hopeful. (And that inclination isn’t reserved just for women; men splurge too, but there seem to be fewer marketing gimmicks made out of it.) Housing might be unattainable, but my ticket to see Swift was only $100. It was the best money I spent all year.

This year promises to be another challenging one. I am thinking about the presidential election, about conflicts around the world, about climate change and what it all means for the health and safety of the women—and girls—around me. I’m also thinking about whether I can pull off the bow trend and what kind of girl math I need to employ to see Swift again on the international leg of her tour. Girls: We’re full of complexities.

Alicia Adamczyk
alicia.adamczyk@fortune.com
@AliciaAdamczyk

The Broadsheet is Fortune’s newsletter for and about the world’s most powerful women. Today’s edition was curated by Emma Hinchliffe. Subscribe here.

ALSO IN THE HEADLINES

- After her ouster. In an op-ed, Claudine Gay addressed her exit from Harvard. The campaign against Harvard's first Black female president, in the aftermath of her Congressional testimony about antisemitism on campus, and then against her scholarship, was part of "a broader war to unravel public faith in pillars of American society," she warned. New York Times

- Big deal. ESPN and the NCAA inked a new eight-year deal that, at $115 million a year, is three times as large as its expiring contract. Women's basketball is to thank for much of that growth, valued at $65 million a year, or 10 times its last agreed broadcasting value. Wall Street Journal

- Prenatal leave. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is looking to implement a policy offering pregnant people 40 hours of paid leave for medical appointments. If approved, the policy would make New York the first U.S. state to guarantee paid prenatal leave. Associated Press

- New biz under threat. Under CEO Sima Sistani, Weight Watchers has expanded into the market for GLP-1 weight loss drugs, including a new telehealth clinic launched in December. But the company's stock had its most dramatic drop in three months yesterday after pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly announced plans to sell its own weight-loss drug directly to consumers through a telehealth platform. Bloomberg

- Care works. Finding suitable child care is a challenge in many parts of the U.S., but it’s especially tough in rural areas, where a recent report found there is a 35% gap between the need for child care programs and their availability (compared to a 29% gap in urban areas). The lack of adequate child care exacerbates workforce shortages, and policymakers fear what that will mean for rural communities going forward. KFF Health News

ON MY RADAR

I was told no one wants fat girls The Cut

Denmark's next queen is a progressive, common-born, former Australian New York Times

The year's most surprising Golden Globe nominee on her cinematic Cinderella story Vanity Fair

PARTING WORDS

"If we all look back and you look at all the interviews that people gave and things that they were asked, that would be absolutely unfathomable in this day and age. No one would stand for it."

—Singer and actress Mandy Moore on the treatment of female performers in the 1990s and early 2000s