TueDo List: Join us TONIGHT for our 10th Birthday!
Plus, stories about "Ambition," a fave TikToker and goodbye, Rosalynn.
THIS MONTH: Stories about “Ambition”
Once upon a time, in our 20s and 30s, our ambition was a diagonal line, jutting up to the right. Maybe it was scrambling up the career ladder at a glossy magazine, every rung a frantic hustle, all to earn a spot in a posh office with a view of a silver-y skyline. Ha!
Nowadays, pining for a magazine career is like holding out for a VHS comeback. It’s less “editor-in-chief by 35” and more “um, remember to water the plants.” Okay, okay, we’re still climbing, but it’s more like an ambling hike in supportive footwear while the path occasionally meanders into a quaint little bookshop. The goal isn’t a title embossed on a glass door, it’s creating a story worth reading — and preferably one with a few laugh-out-loud moments.
We want to talk about what our aspirations are like, and how they’ve changed in our 40s and 50s, so we’re kicking off a month of stories around the theme of AMBITION. Last week we ran Julia Khvasechko’s story about her ambition to run 300 marathons; this week is Carla Zanoni’s tribute to her grandmother’s ambitions for her. Stay tuned for Abbe Aronson, Ebele Onyema, Penny Wrenn and Carlene Bauer. If you join us tonight for our 10th Birthday Bash you’ll hear them read aloud, and there’s nothing like it.
Just a few tickets are left for our in-person event. If you’re not in NYC, we hope you’ll join the livestream and chat with other TueNighters live! Tickets for that are still available here.
See you then and there!
xo, Margit
THIS WEEK
📖 READ: “At 33, I knew everything. At 69, I know something much more important.” Navigating holiday debates, without flipping the table. Unraveling generational conflict at work. Gabrielle Union opens up about menopause. Why we need women in the boardroom. From a career in media to singing cabaret. Rewinding the cassette tape revolution.
👀 LOOK: Remembering former first lady Rosalynn Carter and the love of a lifetime. We’re so feeling this photo from TueNight contributor Ashlie Atkinson, who stars in the Gilded Age. Things everyone’s parents had in the ‘90s. Pink gives away 2,000 banned books at Florida concerts. The best Thanksgiving TV episodes and Christmas movies of all time.
🎁 GIFTS! Black Friday deals on sex toys. I’m Dead, Now What: both a guided planner and a tremendous gift for your family. We love the BoxFox gift box for teens. These self-cleaning water bottles.
🎧 LISTEN: Dolly Parton talks about her new rock and roll album. PJ Harvey’s Tiny Desk concert. Who all is going to see Liz Phair live?
😋 YUM: Foods that don’t taste like they used to. The ‘80s has come for the cheese aisle.
🤣 LOL: Wendi Aarons asks: Are you the worst person at Thanksgiving? Generations going to work.
📺 WATCH:
This week: The dark, Irish-set comedy-drama, Obituary (Hulu). Dr. Ibram X. Kendi’s best-selling book, Stamped from the Beginning, comes to life (Netflix).
Wed: Joaquin Phoenix as Napoleon (Theaters). Melissa McCarthy in the holiday comedy Genie (Peacock).
Thurs: The annual Thanksgiving Day Parade will broadcast on NBC and will be live-streamed on Peacock.
Sat: David Tennant is back in the TARDIS for three episodes of Doctor Who's 60th Anniversary Specials (Disney+).
STORY: My Abuela's Unwavering Faith Carried Me from Drugs to a Degree
By Carla Zanoni
At just shy of 21, I moved to New York City with a stack of well-worn books, a need for independence and a fantasy of becoming a writer. It was 1995 and I had dropped out of community college across the river in New Jersey, more interested in going to raves than studying all night. I thought school might not be for me.
But there was one person in my life who never questioned whether I would go to college, she just wanted to know when.
“Cuando te vas al colegio?” my maternal grandmother, Lala, would ask. “Lala” because I could not yet pronounce Abuela as a toddler. With Lala it was never “will you go to college,” it was always “when will you go to college?”
“Es sólo cuestión de tiempo.” It’s only a matter of time. Somehow she didn’t care about my previous thwarted attempts.
Lala taught me Spanish while my younger twin brothers perfected their secret twin gibberish. She taught me how to cook and clean. She taught me how she set her shoulder-length blond hair in rollers each night, how she washed her face with cold cream. She was beauty with a dash of Lucille Ball-type silliness, piercing perfectionism, and the smell of Jean Naté body splash. I was a student of Lala and her ways.
Carla will be sharing her story at our Birthday Bash tomorrow night, November 21st — don’t miss it!
TUENIGHT 10: Morgen Schick, Model to TikTok Star
Your Age: 59
Basic bio: Morgen is an advocate for women to feel like ageless goddesses! She’s had many careers, including Ford model, makeup artist, author, and now beauty entrepreneur. Morgen is on a mission to inspire, educate and impassion all women to seize their inner power and lead thriving lives.
She’s appeared on the HSN Network as a spokesperson and skin care expert, her user-friendly book Your Makeover: Simple Ways For Any Woman to Look Her Best, is now in its fourth printing — and we can’t get enough of her incredible makeup tips on TikTok.
Beyond the bio: Every day is a new opportunity to engage in the life you want, with joy and passion. Changing the paradigm in how our culture defines women in general, but focusing on the post-menopausal experience with information and inspiration is my main objective. It’s a time to thrive, not hide.
What makes you a grown-ass lady? Evolution and engaging in the power we always had but have suppressed. I try to challenge the culture of what it means to age in our society.
Happy Friendsgiving, TueNighters!
My book GONEPAUSAL was one of a kind on the subject of re:menopause as six years ago no one was willing to talk the talk that needed to be done. The reality back then scared women ; it was still very hush hush. Being a comedian and writer of Dear Gail I found a way to describe all the wild symtoms as funny and I spun them into humor. Now thankfully women are stepping up to the plate on the subject . It's' an unavoidable sea change and people finally speaking out is so necessary. I promise Gonepausal will help make you laugh your way through a hot flash and looking for while talking on your phone.