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Editorial 

Stories, ideas and obsessions shaping the world of female fandom.

  • Sometimes the hardest decision isn’t leaving when it’s over. It’s leaving while you’re still winning.

    Four Champions Leagues, ten league titles, two Ballons d’Or and 14 years at FC Barcelona. Alexia Putellas had mastered the life she was living.

    So she chose one she hadn’t.

    London City Lionesses means a new city, a new league and a young club with more history ahead of it than behind it. For a woman who has spent much of her career collecting trophies, becoming a beginner again is its own kind of radical.

    Because what do you chase when there’s very little left to prove? Well…possibility.

    And that might be the most interesting thread running through her interview with El País Semanal. Alexia talks about the money reshaping women’s football, freezing her eggs and giving herself more choice over what comes next, and fashion as a language for expressing how she feels while also having fun with it.

    Different conversations, but perhaps the same instinct: a refusal to believe that the life you’ve mastered has to be the life you keep choosing.

    So this September, maybe the question isn’t what you want to achieve next. It’s, what you’re willing to be new at again?

  • Why a new season doesn’t mean becoming someone new.

    There’s something about September that makes us want to sharpen everything.

    The out-of-offices disappear. The tan lines begin to fade. The year suddenly feels finite again — and with that comes the inevitable internal audit.

    What’s next? What needs to change? Should I be doing more?

    There’s a temptation to treat a new season like a clean slate. New routines. New goals. New version of you.

    But starting fresh doesn’t mean starting over.

    As the WSL returns, plenty of players will be navigating their own version of that reset. A new club. A new city. Different teammates. Bigger expectations. Another season asking something new of them.

    And yet none of them arrive empty-handed.

    They bring the seasons before it. The wins worth carrying. The losses that taught them something. The confidence earned quietly. The mistakes they have no intention of making twice.

    Maybe that is the better way to think about our own resets too.

    Keep what worked. Leave behind what didn’t. Make a few bold moves. Change direction if you need to.

    Just don’t confuse reinvention with erasure.

    You don’t need to become a different woman every September.

    Sometimes you simply need to take everything you’ve already become — and raise the game.

    Start fresh. Not over.

  • The future is coming in fast, and the F1 Academy is in the lead. So don’t blink, or you might miss it.

    F1 has proved you can teach an old dog new tricks. 
    Back in 2017, only 8% of its fanbase were women — today that number sits at over 40%. 

    The so-called Drive to Survive effect brought F1 at the front and centre of culture. And one of its most impactful results? Women. The sport’s fastest growing demographic are women between the ages of 18 and 24.

    But we’re not here to talk about those of us who are watching. We’re here to talk about the women racing. 🏎️

    The F1 Academy is three years old (3!) and already creating cultural waves that travel well beyond the track.  From fashion magazine covers to partnerships with Lego, Sephora and Disney. 

    This series came to play hard — big money, big moves, big impact. 

    And if you haven’t watched them race before, the F1 Academy has 18 drivers between the ages of 16 and 25, competing against each other in the exact same car, which means absolutely zero mechanical advantage. What you’re watching is pure human competition, nothing more and nothing less.

    These drivers are paving the way for a generation of girls who are now starting to dream about karting lanes, but their impact doesn’t stop there. 

    They inspire entire generations. Watch them for five minutes and you’d swear you were in the presence of women carrying decades of experience, grit, and unshakeable determination.

    → “I don’t chase boys. I pass them.” — Nina Gademan
    → “I’m the one driving. I’m the one in control.” — Rachel Robertson
    → “Most people who say it’s not possible do not know anything about racing.” — Alba Larsen, on those who doubt women making it to the F1 grid.

    These women are not slowing down for anyone, and neither is the F1 Academy.

    📆 On July 4 and 5, they race their first ever British Grand Prix at Silverstone — another historic moment in a series that is only just getting started. 

    Race one and two streaming live on the F1 Academy YouTube channel.

    It’s going to be unmissable. 👀