So, it's 10pm, and here's my #InternationalWomensDay post: I flip-flopped in my head all day about what I wanted to write, because, honestly, shouldn't every day be dedicated to women? (We women dedicate our days to everyone, after all.) Women carry the world in our wombs and on our shoulders. We are strong wills and soft arms. By our very nature, we prioritize the greater good. I could cite a coffee-mug-perfect Eleanor Roosevelt quote or shout out Malala or Greta (who deserve all the shouts), but for those of us who are just IN it with the mothering and the worrying and the role-modeling and the cheering -- and today was full of IT for me -- I want to say this: We all count. Just by showing the hard stuff and celebrating the victories, and dressing our daughters in superhero costumes for their third birthdays, we are damn heroes. You're the heroes to me.

Bravo, @toryburch and @toryburchfoundation COO @gabrielleraymondmcgee for this dream of a day at #EmbraceAmbitionSummit that truly lived up to its theme, "Challenging Stereotypes and Creating New Norms." Amid virus fears, and weird climate changey weather, and a push notification 1-minute before I went on stage that the last female candidate for president had ended her run, this room of 2000 diverse souls was nothing but hopeful as collectively we work for change. As I said in my speech about #thefifthtrimester, it’s up to those of us who are IN it to FIX it. To watch @gloriasteinem @timesupnow @tinatchen @halima @iamyolaofficial @ashley_judd @gretchencarlson @sambarry and so many more voices for change, go to www.embraceambition.org. I’ve posted two little clips of my speech here, too. 💛

Happening tomorrow!! This year, @toryburchfoundation #EmbraceAmbition Summit is taking on bias by challenging stereotypes and creating new norms. Want to watch? (Mom, this is me telling you! @susansmith0224!) I’ll be on at 10:20 for four packed minutes of fifth trimester righteousness, and other speakers include @ashley_judd @gloriasteinem @iamyolaofficial and so many more outstanding passionate advocates for women’s equality. You can watch LIVE tomorrow at embraceambition.org 💛!

Hi from the subway as I’m on my way to @maisonetteworld’s office to share my (Outraged! Righteous! Empathetic!) thoughts about mom guilt. (Video coming as soon as I put on some 💄.) Thank you SO much for all of the heartfelt questions you shared with me. Here are the four I chose for my first “Ask Lauren” column, linked in my Stories: 📝 Q: I'm an introvert and feel like I give the best of myself at the office. By the time I get home, I've used up all of my energy being an ambivert at the office. What can I do about this guilt? I think my kids are getting the leftovers of me. 📝 Q: Help, please. Saying goodbye to my 14 month old for work trips makes me want to quit. It feels like I’m dying inside. 📝 Q: I feel like I experience a small amount of guilt because I *don't* feel guilty about working and mothering. What do I do about that?! 📝 Q: How do I overcome guilty feelings for anything fun I do that doesn't involve my child? ⭐️ Answers, comfort, and commiseration 🔗 linked in bio and Stories

To build a better man, get him a dog (and maybe don’t get too germaphobey about letting him share his own bedding). My review of @pjorenstein and @cnatterson ‘s excellent books Boys & Sex, and Decoding Boys, is in today’s print @nytbooks. These authors believe in the goodness of boys to become great men...and in our ability as parents to get them there. Link in my Stories. 💛

LIFELONG DREAM alert!! As a kid, I read Dear Abby and Ann Landers daily over my Honey Nut Cheerios before school. In college, I played Lucy van Pelt in *You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown* and hung her “Advice: 5 cents” sign above my dorm room door. In my years at Glamour, I edited everyone *else’s* advice columns (seriously, even “Jake” the anonymous single guy). And now — finally — I get my own real life chance as the new monthly advice columnist for @maisonette. Tap into my Stories to ask a Q about this month’s topic: MOM GUILT. 🤷‍♀️💡💖 Repost from @maisonetteworld using @RepostRegramApp - We are so excited to welcome Lauren Smith Brody of @thefifthtrimester as our new advice columnist! The founder of The Fifth Trimester movement and author of the essential book The Fifth Trimester: The Working Mom’s Guide to Style, Sanity, and Success After Baby, Lauren is basically the new mom whisperer. Now, each month, you’ll have the chance to get her expert advice on those tricky topics all mothers face. First up, Mom Guilt! Visit our stories and ask away! ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Photography @nancyborowick

That time in college when Ben wrote a feature for @dailypenn newspaper about the Society for Creative Anachronism (which actually ended up being a story about tech bros), and he indulged me by going undercover in these rental costumes and fulfilling my princess dream (which actually ended up being a fairytale that included all of the feminist working mom rabble rouser parts too). Thank you for loving me then, now, and next, @zekebrody. #LOVEPenn @pennalumni

One funny -- and very fulfilling -- dichotomy of my life right now is that while most of my work is devoted to swaddling newborn working moms, my own boys are now 8 and 11. Turns out, those babies grow and grow, and I am surprised and delighted to tell you that I actually like the big kid years of deep-breath talks, and multiplying fractions, and overflowing laundry hampers even more than the smell of sweet baby's head. I don't write much about my sons now because parenting them is as much about *them* as it is about me, and they deserve privacy, but I was THRILLED to have the opportunity to write this (my first!) book review for @nytimes These two books about raising sons, by @pjorenstein and Cara Natterson, set fire to the notion that boys will be (silent, sulky) boys. They want connection and information and parents who do not shy away from talking about the hard stuff. And in fact, it turns out, talking about sex, porn, consent, rights, feeeeeellllings, and love with our boys is the very best way to lift up our girls, too. Link in my Stories to the review, and please do check out these books, even if you save them until you're through potty training! Thank you as always, for your support of my work. And thanks to the best editor in the world, @lizegan3, and @nytbooks for the assignment.

Twelve podiums and a microphone (where it's at!). (No? Where are my late nineties college people?) ANYWAY. I've gotten terrible at doing static posts, but I just cleared my whiteboard and realized that in the past two weeks, I've had: Seven media interviews, six speaking engagements, and more meetings and calls than I want to count. I think that's a record for me. Today alone, I have talked nonstop about supporting new parents in 1) a @cheddar interview about the potential economic impact of Finland's new paternity leave, 2) an interview for a UCLA study about the cultural impact of gender neutral policies, and 3) a long interview with a Wall Street Journal reporter who's working on a big story that may be months in the making. I'm telling you this for two reasons: A) HOW fantastic that support of new parents is getting the attention it deserves in academia and the media and the private sector? And B) These are the kinds of thing that used to make me literally tremble with nerves and self-doubt. No more. It helps that part of the message I'm putting out there is about the strength of vulnerability and transparency. I've also gotten so much more comfortable saying: "Can you ask that again," and "Let me think for a minute," and "That's not my exact area of expertise, but in my lived experience, I can tell you that..." or "Does anyone else have experience to share here?" and knowing that *it all counts.* I count and you count, and together our voices make a difference. Go team. Happy Friday! 📸 @aleksg at my @workandco event last week

Run run run (or, okay, stroller speed walk) to get this genius book, just out today. FOLLOWERS is an all-too-plausible cautionary tale about what the world might look like in 35 years (hint: government-appointed celebrities, and cameras everywhere). It’s also hilarious and endlessly fun. **and now here’s where I pivot to the new working mom angle because you knew I had one** I first read an early draft of this book two years ago, when I begged @meganangelo for a peek of her “oh, I’m writing a novel” novel. I have loved every essay and review Megan has ever written for @elleusa @glamourmag @nytimes (feminist parenting and tv-watching gold) so I was pretty sure I would like her book...but I never could have imagined the world she’d dream up. Just the sheer inventiveness and cleverness of it all. Right around the same time, I read a study about mama rats that showed that rats with newborns were more creative at getting through mazes to find food for their babies. They climbed over the walls! Until this point, many researchers believed that post partum was a time of stymied creativity and that moms in creative fields couldn’t fully engage until their babies were a year old. NOPE. Here’s where I mention that Megan has three little kiddos. She was pregnant and had her third while deep in edits for this insanely creative book. Also deep in PJ Masks and birthday parties and bedtimes and diapers and all the rest. Megan, thank you for dazzling us and inspiring me, and happy, happy pub day! 💛

This is sort of a contest but really just a big thank you to any of you who are working through the holidays. 💛 I worked through a few high-stress holiday seasons in my corporate job (with not a small amount of resentment), and my husband, who’s a doctor in a hospital, often works holidays. Today, our family’s week off is being “handled” by the nice lady at @dunkin this morning, by the doggy caregivers at @instinctdogtrainingnnj, by the fulfillment and delivery people at @amazon and by so many other hard-working people in between. Stats: Women are twice as likely as men to work part-time (read: no PTO, no holiday pay) jobs. 61% of healthcare, leisure, and service workers are women. (Data here comes from the @iwpresearch .) That’s a lot of working moms (many in this community!) working through the holidays. If you’re working this week, comment here or on my Stories and tell us about what you do (or tag a mom friend who’s working and thank her). We will cheer you on. And as a little thank you, I will draw the name of one responder at 9am EST on Weds 12/26 and send that person a copy of my book and a $20 Amazon gift card. 💛 PS: If the person whose name I draw is tagging a friend, I’ll double the thank you and send you both a book and gift card. Fantastic 🎨 here is by @abbey_lossing for my @nytimes story How to Be Mostly OK (And Occasionally Fantastic) at the Whole Working Mom Thing), which was one of the professional highlights of my 2019 and is linked in my bio...err will be as soon as Insta cooperates from the backroads of Pennsylvania.

I am admittedly algorithm ignorant, so have no idea if the thousands (!) of people who see my stories are the same who see my (neglected, sorry) feed. Anyway, I’ve been doing lots of Ask Me Anything sessions as a way to be available to you beyond my corporate work, and to learn from your diverse experiences and challenges. All saved in the two AMA highlights above. 👍 This question from yesterday was a doozy. The mom wanted know what I thought of her plan to take paid leave and then not return to work. 😳 MY ANSWER: “Technically, you do you. Your leave is part of your benefits package and is probably part of why you took your job or have stayed as long as you have. Also, there’s every reasonable chance that you’ve been penalized by the wage gap and/or the Motherhood Penalty and are leaving because the cost of childcare for two kids eats up most of your post-taxes salary. Or, you’ve been discriminated against and not had fair access to career-growing opportunities. I get that. *BUT* If your decision is not primarily financial, and if your employer has not discriminated against you in any way, I would implore you to be open with them about your decision at least part-way through your leave (who knows, you may change your mind once you’re home with two kids). Give them the time to replace you, and, more importantly, don’t make things harder for the parents who come after you who will contend with the assumption that they’re not coming back.” What do you all think?? 💛