Zara Hanawalt
Stop whispering, start talking: sharp, sassy takes on life in a female body.
What is Fibermaxxing — and Should You Try It?
If you spend a lot of time on social media (it’s meee, hi!), you’ve probably heard of “fibermaxxing”, a wellness trend some creators are swearing by.
Fibermaxxing is essentially a viral trend that’s all about consuming as much fiber as possible. People claim this can boost your gut health and help with regularity and weight loss, which is why many of them are replacing their protein goals with fiber goals (though, to be clear, protein and fiber aren’t an either/or situation). In an attempt to reap these benefits, people are loading up on things like chia seeds, raspberries, beans (so many beans), and such to ramp their fiber intake all the way up.
As we’ve discussed, most Americans aren’t getting enough fiber. But is this social media driven fad a healthy way to counteract this….or a great way to overdo it and irritate your stomach?
Perhaps a bit of both, per registered dietician Anna Bohnenel, who is on hand to weigh in on the trend’s safety and validity.
"Dramatically boosting your fiber intake is rooted in sound science,” she says. “Fiber plays a critical role in slowing carb digestion, feeding beneficial gut bacteria, and supporting regularity, all of which translate to more stable blood sugar, hormone balance, and metabolic health.”
But going too hard can bring some icky side effects (think bloating, gas, and an upset stomach).
To get the benefits of fibermaxxing while minimizing the GI effects, Bohnengel offers up a few tips: Get fiber from whole foods like beans, lentils, vegetables, fruits, and whole grains. Be careful of fiber additives (like inulin, chicory root, xanthan and guar gums).
It's also a good idea to increase your fiber intake gradually. "Add [about] 5 grams of fiber per day every 3–7 days, not all at once," says Bohnengel.
Finally, increase your hydration too. For every 5 to 10 grams of fiber you add a day, you’ll also want to add 8 to 16 extra ounces of fluid.
So fibermaxxing? It can be a good thing. But maybe it’s worthwhile to think of it as being mindful of increasing your fiber intake rather than “maxxing” in an extreme way.
Ask Clara:
"Do Americans eat enough fiber?"
The U.S. Birth Rate Hits a New Low. Can We Finally Talk About the Why?
Well, here’s a big piece of news: The United States fertility rate fell to a new low in 2025. According to data from the CDC, fertility rates fell about 1 percent from 2024 to 2025. This follows a general decline we’ve been seeing for years now. According to the data, fertility rates in the US peaked in 2007 — and researcher Brady Hamilton tells NPR that the general fertility rate has declined by 23 percent since then.
This is a really significant shift. But we can’t talk about it without talking about what’s driving fertility rates down.
Moms First founder Reshma Saujani puts it best: “I would argue that our fertility rates are a scorecard on how America is doing to support families,” she says during an appearance on CNN. “And guess what? We’re failing. We are pricing people out of parenthood.”
And she’s right. Let’s face it: Getting pregnant feels terrifying when reproductive choice is being taken away, leaving pregnant women vulnerable to life-threatening complications.
Giving birth is terrifying when you’re poised to do it in a country with a maternal mortality crisis.
Having a baby is terrifying when you may have to return to work just weeks or even days postpartum.
Raising a child is terrifying when you can’t afford quality childcare.
And the list goes on and on. Fertility rates are dropping because our system hasn’t done enough to make having children less scary…or even less impossible.
What a lot of people hear when they see that the fertility rate has declined is that fewer people are having kids. What it actually means is that people are having fewer children. So some families may stop at 2 kids instead of 3 because having a 3-child family has become a real luxury — some people are even saying that a third baby is a status symbol along the lines of a Birkin bag. Because guess what? Raising children is incredibly expensive, now more than ever — even after the daycare days, because guess what? The school day and the work day still don't line up. It's just another way the system makes parenthood impossible for American parents.
So yeah. Fertility rates are down. That’s a real thing. But what’s just as important is the context of why people are having fewer children. Because one is a reflection of the other.
The 'Laguna Beach' Reunion and While We're All So Nostalgic
Like so many millennials, I spent this past weekend tuned in to the Laguna Beach 20 year (!!!) reunion. And I found myself feeling strangely emotional about the whole thing. A quick note: Laguna Beach was one of the OG reality shows about a group of high school students in a beautiful, affluent beach town. It hinged on a central love triangle between Kristin Cavallari, Stephen Colletti, and Lauren Conrad. Much of the buzz around the show was about pitting Conrad and Cavallari against on another, but Laguna Beach actually showcased a lot of beautiful friendships — and we don't talk about that enough!
Anyway, back to me getting full emotional during the reunion. It stands to reason, I guess: I am almost the same age as the cast, and the first season of Laguna Beach premiered when I was in high school. Watching this show feels like a time capsule. I dressed the same way as the kids onscreen (the chokehold that layered tanks, Uggs, and denim skirts had on us!), listened to the same music, and spoke in a similar way (less beach slang for sure, but pretty sure I said “like” as much as they did).
While I was watching, I had a realization: The reason I, and so many of my fellow millennials, are so hopelessly nostalgic all the time, is because nothing today feels quite as accessible.
Watching Laguna Beach felt like getting invited to a high school party hosted by the popular kids. You had this sense that you were in the room with them, and that’s what felt so game-changing about the early days of reality TV.
But today, nothing feels this authentic. Not TV, not social media, not even real life.
We’re living in this disconnected world and experiencing so much of it through the screen. And on those screens, we see filtered, edited, spliced content. We see altered faces everywhere today — on Laguna Beach, it is striking to see how normal everyone looks. How much character and expression their faces had. Every single person on the cast was beautiful, but in a “they look like the hottest person I went to high school with” way. Now, I see teenagers who have perfected their makeup routines (thanks, I'm sure, to social media tutorials), and I wonder when we all lost the privilege of just...stumbling through it all.
And I think that’s what we are longing for right now: Something that feels real. Content that feels relatable. Simplicity. Kids just being kids: Messing up, being imperfect, caring only about the small worlds they inhabit. Being a teen in the aughts, it felt like your friends, the parties, the music, the Friday night plans...they were everything. For better or worse, nothing else really mattered.
I don’t know if teens today get to experience this in our digitally connected world. But here’s what I do know: I don’t feel this same sense simplicity in my life anymore. At all.
I am young enough to remember the feeling of that era in my own life and in pop culture, yet old enough to feel totally removed from it…and to long for a little piece of that world.
Ask Clara:
"Why are millennial women so nostalgic?"
Is Automatically Unfollowing Women Who Get Married or Pregnant a Form of Misogyny?
I recently came across a TikTok that went viral. In it, a woman shares that she automatically unfollows any woman once she announces a pregnancy or engagement.
The post has since been deleted, but it’s not the only one of its kind. Across my feeds, I frequently see takes from people saying that once a woman gets married or has a child, she becomes unrelatable and uninteresting. And they click that “unfollow" button.
Listen, I get that it’s easier to relate to someone who is in a similar phase of life to your own. I understand that single and childfree women, who have historically been criticized by the public and deemed “selfish” or "incomplete" should be entitled to find community.
But this idea that once a woman makes more traditional choices (marriage, motherhood), she becomes boring, dull, uninspiring, uncool— that’s also a real piece of the womanhood experience. Many of the people saying they hit unfollow when a women online takes this path are framing it as a progressive choice. But removing your support when a woman makes a choice that looks different than your own…well, that doesn’t feel like true feminism, at least to me. Especially when you consider that hitting "unfollow" isn't just a personal move, but one that can ultimately affect a creator's business.
On my feeds, I’ve seen real beef pop up between childfree-by-choice people and parents. On the childfree side, people will boast about the things they can do because they’re not “shackled” by children; on the parent side, people (many mothers) will declare that anyone who has never experienced parenthood just simply doesn’t know love or purpose.
But girls, come on. We have to stick together here! We have to have each other’s backs. And when we let this divide come between us, all we do is decrease our collective strength as women.
I am a married woman and a mother. And you know what? Maybe that does make me uninteresting to some. I spend most of my nights at home, reading books and sipping herbal tea and watching all my shows because...that's what I want out of life right now. Peace, calm, relaxation (with a side of vicarious chaos via the shows I watch).
But marriage and motherhood didn’t erase all of me. I am still who I was before.
I get that if an influencer you follow starts only posting content about marriage and motherhood, you may feel compelled to leave the chat because those aren’t topics that appeal to you. That’s totally fine!
But to assume that a woman is going to become consumed by those things, that she is going to cross over to this place of banal unrelatability, that everything she’s brought to the table will suddenly vanish as she adds new pieces to her identity? That doesn’t feel cool or revolutionary or fresh at all, at least to me. It actually feels a bit like misogyny.
Because let's face it: We don't let chocies around marriage and motherhood define men.
Accidental Pregnancies in Your 40s Are Common. Let’s Talk About Why
I recently read an article in The Atlantic that kind of altered my brain chemistry — and by “altered my brain chemistry”, I really just mean it pointed out something I haven’t considered about reproductive health despite literally thinking about reproduction like it’s my job (because it kind of is my job as a journalist who covers the topic).
The article is about accidental pregnancies after 40, which are surprisingly common (like, around one in three pregnancies among women over 40 are unplanned, according to data from a few years ago).
That’s not to say fertility doesn’t decline with age. It does. We do lose eggs as we get older; that’s a scientific fact. But what we need to remember is this: Your fertility doesn’t just completely leave the chat when you turn 35, as narratives around “advanced maternal age” (a terrible term, as we’ve discussed) might suggest.
The root of accidental pregnancies after 40, as this article touches on, seems to be more about approach and lifestyle. People may lower their guard where pregnancy prevention is concerned. They experience symptoms of perimenopause and assume “hey, I’m in the clear — I won’t get pregnant now” and maybe they stop really paying attention to contraception.
We also are still very much learning about the realities of perimenopause and menopause — to the point that we really never spoke publicly about these topics up until very recently, and as a result, people don’t really know what’s happening in our bodies. They also may not know that perimenopause affects, but doesn't completely wipe out, your fertility. It's not until you've reached menopause, which is clinically defined as one year without a period, that your ability to get pregnant is gone, according to Mayo Clinic materials. You should use birth control until then if you want to avoid pregnancy.
And that’s what it all comes down to: We don’t have the information about how to identify perimenopause and menopause, and we don’t have the information of how our fertility fares in those life stages…so we’re vulnerable to loss of reproductive control.
And then, we don’t have a sense of what is truly happening in our bodies, so maybe we miss a few periods or gain a few pounds and think “oh, this is just perimenopause changing my body”, not realizing you’re actually pregnant until you’re far along.
The bottom line? We need more information about our bodies. And this is yet another example of that.
Sasha Pieterse’s Take on PCOS, GLP-1 Medication + Women’s Bodies is Spot On
During a late-night scroll, I came across a post from actress Sasha Pieterse that stopped me in my tracks.
The Pretty Little Liars star spoke about appearing in Meghan Trainor’s music video…and about the comments on her and Trainor’s bodies that quickly poured in.
“This is what I want you to understand about women and body commentary online,” Pieterse said. “You will never be the right size.”
She pointed out that Trainor built her career on celebrating her curves and was body-shamed for that…and now that she has a smaller physique, she’s being criticized for that too. Pieterse is no stranger to this: As a teen, she publicly gained 70 pounds while filming Pretty Little Liars due to PCOS, and the commentary was loud. When she lost that weight, it was loud once again.
“There is no version of existing in a female body that the internet won’t have a problem with,” she said, adding that “no amount of willpower” will fix those hormonal issues. What many women need is medication — yet many of the medications that are effective for conditions like PCOS are heavily stigmatized right now.
“I have watched those medications get mocked and shamed,” Pieterse said, presumably referring to GLP-1 drugs, adding that all this does is make women who need these medications feel there’s something to be ashamed of.
This is nuanced, as most conversations that deal with GLP-1 drugs are. But Pieterse nailed the nuance in her caption: “There is a difference between hollywood pressuring women to shrink themselves to fit a standard, and a woman working with her doctor to treat a real hormonal condition. one is the problem. the other is the solution. stop confusing them,” she wrote
For more of Pieterse’s thoughts, check out her Substack on the topic. This is such a valuable perspective — as someone who grew up in the public eye, had her body chane in very visible ways, heard all the criticism, searched for answers as to what was truly happening with her body, and found a solution that works for her body…all while still being criticized by the public, Pieterse understands this shaming of women’s bodies, dismissal of the real issues they face, and stigmatization of the medications that can help them manage these issues, Pieterse’s perspective is so valuable.
Ask Clara:
"How do GLP-1 drugs help women with PCOS?"
Recent Research About Attitudes Towards Tradwives Proves...Exactly What We've Always Known
I can't stand tradwife content. To me, it isn't just dangerous to suggest that the ultimate (and only) path to happiness as a woman is to reject feminism, submit to your husband, and serve your "natural" role as a homemaker to your "provider" husband. It's also....cheesy.
Because one thing we need to remember? The tradwife influencers who pop up frequently on your feeds are monetizing these ideas....all while telling other women that feminism (you know, the thing that enables them to do what they're doing) is what is failing them. It's a full-on grift.
Now, to be clear: I am not anti stay-at-home mom (or even stay-at-home wife). I stayed home when my twins were born, and I fully support any woman taking on that job (because yes, it is a job). My gripe is with the attitudes of servitude and submission the tradwives peddle. It's with the dismissal of all the unpaid work women do, and how it leaves the financial risks of being without your own income out of the question. But while I worry about how trad wife content will affect young women, the truth is, I've always been even more concerned about how it will affect men.
Because now we have evidence to support what I've always known: Support for the tradwife movement was linked to negative perception of women among the men surveyed. For research published in Psychology of Women Quarterly, study authors surveyed 595 men about their familiarity with and opinions on trad wife content. According to their findings, men with attitudes of hostile sexism were more likely to support the trad wife ideology.
These men, according to this research, frequently view performing domestic labor and caring for children as the easy way of the paid workforce (it's not).
This is exactly how so many women end up in ugly, abusive, controlling marriages with totally warped power dynamics. This is what contributes to women being told they should fill "traditional roles", then being told they "don't work" or "don't contribute", so they can't have any say in how the family or household runs.
Again, it's not the opting out of the traditional workforce I take umbrage with here. It's the idea that women only belong in one place, and that this place is reserved for people who are less competent, less powerful, and less respectable. And how does a stay-at-home parent differ from a tradwife, you ask? Well, the former can have an egalitarian partnership, while the latter is based on an ideology that puts women in the backseats of their own relationships.
And there are dangers to that – financial dangers, physical and mental health dangers, and more.
Ask Clara:
"What is a tradwife?"
The 'Summer House' Drama Has Me Asking: What Does it Actually Mean to be a 'Girl's Girl'?
This may sound dramatic, but when Amanda Batula and West Wilson confirmed their romance via a joint statement, I audibly gasped. For the uninitiated, a breakdown: Batula recently announced her divorce from Kyle Cook, while Wilson has been in a will-they-won’t-they dynamic with Ciara Miller. How do I know all this? Well, all parties involved star on one of my favorite reality shows, Summer House.
Worth mentioning? Batula and Miller are close friends. Which means that people aren’t just side-eyeing Batula for moving on from her ex husband quickly, they’re also (rightfully, TBH) mad that she’s with her friend’s ex — and not just any ex. The ex who broke her heart.
It’s inspiring a ton of conversation about how Batula isn’t “a girl’s girl”. And when I say a “ton of conversation”, I mean this discussion is pretty much taking over my feeds at the moment. People are coming hard for Batula. They're saying they’ve always hated her. Saying she’s an insecure pick-me who was always jealous of Miller. A recent campaign Batula starred in was even pulled.
And it’s all got me thinking: What does it truly mean to be a girl’s girl? Yes, dating your friend’s ex doesn’t exactly scream “girl’s girl” behavior. It's a clear violation of girl code. Yes, this situation looks really, really bad, especially when you consider that Batula was there to watch Miller’s heartbreak unfold.
But it’s starting to feel a bit hypocritical. Calling out someone for not being a “girl’s girl”, all while essentially contributing to the cyber bullying of another woman, wishing ill upon her, and taking this fall from grace as an invitation to completely rip a woman to shreds on the Internet...I don't know, it seems like we've lost the plot a bit.
We see this time and time again: Pop culture has its heroes and villains, and we as a public come for people when they slip up — as we all do at some point. We condemn so loudly, there’s no way they can possibly shield themselves from the backlash.
There are real mental health dangers to this: People aren’t meant to hear about how hated they are, yet people in the public eye are essentially told they have to accept this, that it comes with the territory. We call it accountability, but really what it becomes is a burning at the stake. And that’s what we’re seeing here, IMO. Because let's face it, both men and women are vulnerable to this type of criticism when they enter the public eye....but somehow, we as a society always delight more in tearing down women.
This is not a defense of Amanda Batula. I’m not saying it’s okay — ever — to get with your friend’s ex. It’s a bad look, no doubt. It certainly doesn’t scream “girl’s girl” behavior. But, hot take: Neither does the outright hate this woman is receiving.
Ask Clara:
"what does it mean to be a girl's girl?"
Pregnancy April Fools Day Pranks are Deeply Unfunny
When I was trying to get pregnant, every single pregnancy announcement felt a bit like salt being poured on my wounds. I’m not proud of it, but it’s how I felt: I wanted to be happy for others when they announced their happy news, but I couldn’t help but feel like pregnancy announcements were just a constant reminder of what was not happening for me....no matter how badly I wanted it or how hard I tried.
But you know what felt even worse than seeing a pregnancy announcement? Seeing jokes about pregnancy on April Fool’s Day. It felt like this thing that was so serious for me was just…a joke to the outside world. At least a legit pregnancy announcement meant happy news for someone. But a joke about pregnancy reveals? It just felt…crass.
We’ve come a long way where sensitivity around fertility issues is concerned. Pregnancy reveal culture has changed. Yet somehow, not everyone has realized how insensitive and deeply unfunny April Fool's Day pranks involving pregnancy are.
I’m so frustrated — yet not at all surprised — to see that people still don’t get this. Today, once again, I came across a fake pregnancy reveal with an AI-generated image of a woman with a faux baby bump.
I’ve also seen debates about whether or not it’s actually wrong to joke about pregnancy today...and I’ve seen a take that “people are too sensitive” in regards to the “no fake pregnancy reveals on April Fool’s Day” rule that has finally become a part of our culture, at least to some extent. This doesn’t surprise me at all, TBH.
The reality is: No. We haven’t gotten too sensitive. Actually, we are still not sensitive enough. The fact that we even have to tell people this, that people are still seeing pregnancy as the butt of the joke, is proof of that.
With the rise of AI, I think pregnancy pranks and scams — on April Fool’s Day and otherwise — will only become more common. Fake baby bumps and doctored ultrasound images will, unfortunately, be way easier for people to create.
It shouldn't have to be said, but clearly it does: Pregnancy is no joke. And it’s not something to joke about. Ever.
Robyn Became a Single Mother by Choice and That's Not a Failure
Robyn — yes, the same Robyn who gave the world the absolute gift of the banger “Dancing on my Own”, among so many other great pop standards — had a child as a single woman in her 40s.
That still feels like a bit of a revolutionary path, though based on statistics around the rise of women opting out of marriage, I suspect it won’t be that way for long.
Like many (but not all!) mothers, Robyn always envisioned doing parenthood with a partner. And when it didn’t shake out that way, when she realized she would have to make compromises she wasn’t willing to make in order to have children in a conventional heterosexual relationship, she opted to do it on her own…and she’s reflecting on the complicated feelings that came with that choice.
“I had seen myself having a kid in a stable relationship. I was sad to let go of that. It felt like a failure,” she told The Guardian.
But here’s what Robyn is truly doing by getting real about these complicated feelings: She’s normalizing this path. And she’s telling other women who want to be mothers, who feel like their time is running out, yet don’t feel like they’ve found a partner with whom they want to build a family, that they don’t have to wait.
Thanks to both improved fertility technologies and a greater scope of what is truly possible for women, you can choose single motherhood. Doing it on your own may feel like the uncommon choice, and society may view it as a "last resort", but people like Robyn will change the narrative. Because it’s not a failure. And by sharing the things that led her to single motherhood by choice, she’s pointing out something important: It can be an intentional move.
“I think motherhood in a conventional heterosexual relationship, in my life at least, has been really hard to reconcile with what I think I would have to do to make that work,” she shared.
Choosing to do it on her own instead? It’s the farthest thing from a failure. It’s a powerful choice. As a mom myself, albeit one who had children after getting married — the more traditional path — I applaud any woman who is designing her own life and uncovering her own possibilities, like Robyn did.
It’s worth noting, though, that solo motherhood is a different ball game for someone like Robyn, who not only had the means to afford egg freezing and IVF, but also the ability to support a child and enlist childcare on her income alone. Her experience is probably not relatable to many single moms. But it’s also important that she challenges our ideas of what women can truly do, of all the options we have at our disposal. We may not all have the privilege to access all these opportunities, but the normalization of them? That’s important too.
Ask Clara:
"Why are women opting out of marriage?"