Between Friends

Between Friends

An introduction

Hi friends,

This was supposed to be a group chat, but here we are.

Between Friends is my attempt to keep you up to date on what’s happening in culture, beauty, and whatever corner of the internet I can still tolerate. It’s not for the extremely online. It’s for my friend Allison Statter, who at a “female empowered” poker game asked me to keep her up to date. SO, here we are!

If HelloGiggles was about optimism and friendship in our twenties, this is about curiosity and connection in our thirties and forties. It’s still the same spirit, just with so many more platforms to waste time on.

So here we go. Between Friends.
A little cultural catch-up that hopefully feels like a voice memo from someone who gets it.

Love,
Sophia

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Things I’m Obsessed With This Week

🎧 Lily Allen’s album
Listen from start to finish. It’s 44 minutes of what I can only describe as brutal optimism. Think of it as a musical about modern womanhood. It’s gorgeous, emotional, funny, and a little devastating. She captures that feeling of knowing better and doing it anyway. It’s about Stanger Things actor she met on Raya and it went wrong, who would’ve guessed. The whole thing plays like a musical. .
👉 Listen here

🎤 Hilary Duff’s new song “Mature”
I love this song and I love her. I saw her on Therapuss and she just seems so unfiltered and alive. She also admitted she’s basically blacked out most of her childhood, which somehow feels extremely relatable. I have no idea what the song “Mature” is actually about, but TikTok is convinced it’s about Leonardo DiCaprio and I don’t agree. Sometimes a pop song is just a pop song.
👉 Listen here

📺 I Love LA on HBO or MAX or whatever we’re calling it now
I love this show mostly because if you asked me to tell you what it’s about, I couldn’t. But I also couldn’t tell you what Girls or Entourage were about either. Like Nobody Wants This (other BFF show alert), it does justice to LA as a character. The aimlessness is the point. It’s funny, beautiful, slightly unhinged, and somehow makes you want to move back to LA even if you already live there.

💄 Versed Glow Drops
I don’t wear makeup that isn’t made by my BFF Katherine Power, but I still feel confident recommending this. It’s easy, light, and gives just enough glow to look like you’re doing better than you are.
👉 Shop here

🎙️ Beth’s Dead Podcast
I really enjoyed Beth’s Dead, a podcast on Patreon from Armchair Expert’s Monica Padman. If you don’t know what Patreon is that’s ok but its basically substack for audio. It’s about parasocial relationships — the kind we build with people online who have no idea we exist. It made me cringe thinking about how many people I’ve engaged with online simply for validation. It’s not scary or spooky, it’s just socially interesting. My type.
👉 Listen here

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Beauty Thoughts of the Week

My entire algorithm is currently facelifts, and I’ve decided to push back and age gracefully. But let’s be clear, I’m not above Botox or lasers. Balance. So I’ll be trying the salmon sperm facial with Dr. Ellie, because if I’ve learned anything from the internet, it’s that nothing says “natural beauty” like fish DNA. Thank you.

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Reply and tell me what you’re loving this week.
Your recommendations are always better than the algorithm’s.

Love,
Sophia