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Good morning,
A few days ago, thanks to a recommendation from my editor Abby, I fell down a Reddit hole—the kind where you think you’re just scrolling for a minute. Two hours later my brain had seen things it didn’t know it needed to see.
This one came from r/AskReddit. The question was so silly at first glance it made me laugh out loud: “Couples of Reddit, what’s the dumbest ‘house rule’ you and your partner made as a joke but are now low-key aggressively serious about enforcing?”
The answers were ridiculous—coded words, themed underwear, garbage-can fairies. But what stuck with me wasn’t the humor. It was how quickly something silly becomes serious once two people live with it long enough.
A joke becomes a norm.
A norm becomes a boundary.
A boundary becomes a rule.
That same pattern shows up everywhere in adult life—just with higher stakes and fewer laughs.
This week’s stories are about the rules we don’t mean to make—and the ones we end up living by anyway. The quiet agreements with yourself and the habits that sneak in while we’re busy managing everything else. Sometimes they protect us. Sometimes they cost us intimacy, agency, or choice. And sometimes, they ask to be renegotiated.
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LIFE
BY JODI WEBB
Caregiving doesn’t arrive with an announcement—it sneaks in through small favors and the unspoken assumption that you’ll be the one to handle it. One day you’re helping out; the next, you’re managing everything—including your own exhaustion. Then comes the moment many women recognize too late: when care turns into responsibility, and responsibility starts to erode identity. If you’ve ever wondered how you got here, or how to keep from disappearing in the process, this is for you.
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MONEY
BY ABBY ALTEN SCHWARTZ
What starts as a hidden box often masks something bigger: fear, power, and unspoken rules around money. This isn’t about shopping—it’s about what secrecy costs a partnership.
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TAKE NOTE
Timely and worth your attention.
🎬 The production of Toy Story began on January 19, 1993, and I was there. It was the first film I ever worked on at Disney, collaborating with a creative team, figuring out how a cowboy and a space ranger should move through the world, not just exist on a screen. Now Toy Story 5 is on the way, and it’s strange and thrilling to live long enough to see sequels to the worlds you once helped build. There’s something satisfying about that kind of creative longevity, and in 2026, culture seems ready to mirror it back to us: Toy Story 5, Greta Gerwig’s Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew, The Bride!, The Mummy, and The Devil Wears Prada 2 are all coming, proving that a life well lived doesn’t fade—it gets a second, sharper act.
💎 This week we’re tipping our hats (and maybe a little hairspray) to the indomitable Dolly Parton, who turned 80 on January 19. Instead of slowing down, she did what legends do: dropped new music and dared the rest of us to keep up. To mark the milestone, Parton released a reimagined version of her 1977 anthem “Light of a Clear Blue Morning,” featuring Miley Cyrus, Reba McEntire, Queen Latifah, and more—with proceeds benefiting pediatric cancer research. Even while navigating health challenges, the 11-time Grammy winner insists she’s “just getting started” and bluntly declares she “ain’t got time to get old.” Consider this a rallying cry for women who know reinvention doesn’t expire at midlife—our voices just get louder.
✍️ Write this down: 2026 might be the year we go analog. Paper planners are back, not as productivity theater but as a rebellion against screens, alerts, and digital exhaustion. I did what any sane woman would do and wildly over-researched the options (start here), eventually landing on the Hobonichi Cousin because, if you know, you know. What I didn’t expect? Stockpiling stickers and gel pens and understanding why stationery stores are bustling again. Planning, it turns out, has become a comforting ritual, a creative pause, and a reminder that not everything meaningful has to live on a screen.
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BY ABBY HEUGEL
She went looking for a lasagna recipe and emerged two hours later fully invested in a stranger’s wedding shrimp trauma. Somewhere between mushrooms, feral ferrets, and 900 unsolicited opinions, Reddit became the most honest room on the internet.
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BRAIN AND BODY
BY LAUREN MANAKER
For decades, menopause has been framed as a problem to fix, manage, or endure. Maybe the real issue isn’t menopause at all—but the lazy, fear-based story we keep being sold.
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READER SPOTLIGHT
“Can’t stop reading! Every single article is perfect and I keep saying ‘yes!’ out loud. I’m in for all new thoughts and experiences at 69. Met the love of my life last year, underwent emergency spinal surgery … big stuff. My son thinks I’m a badass and calls me Rambo with boobs. 😂” — Diane on PROVOKED: Year One Want to be featured next? Comment on your favorite piece—we read them all.
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⌨️ Our newsletter and articles are written by Susan and the talented writers of PROVOKED. Get to know the women behind them here.
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