We’re listening, and we’re growing 🌿
We’re listening.
After our first newsletter, we received some thoughtful feedback, thank you. One message came through clearly: this newsletter speaks to women across generations. So, you’ll notice: we’ve taken millennial out of our description. Because our vision is bigger than any label. We’re here for all women.
And today, we’re delighted to feature our first guest piece from a voice of the next generation, Nova, age 15.
Welcome to this week’s issue of COVVN.
What we’re stirring up this week:
💪I Can Do Anything: My Day at the Empowering Young Women Summit
🤷♀️What Does “Professional” Even Mean?
🪞Spell of the Week: A Mirror Spell For You
✨Thrifted Magic: Finds from Thrift Stores and the Stories They Carry
💪 I Can Do Anything: My Day at the Empowering Young Women Summit
By Nova, 9th grade student
Hi! I’m Nova, a 9th grader. A friend invited me to the Empowering Young Women Summit, and it turned out to be one of the most inspiring days I’ve had.
The women I met there were beautiful, powerful, wise, and confident, and I loved how they dressed (baddies wear cool shoes and great earrings). They shared so much great advice, but what mattered most to me was this: I could tell 100%, no, ten million percent, that they believed in me. They believed in all of us younger women. And they showed that when women support each other, we can do anything.
Before the summit, I’d been worrying about a lot of things that didn’t really matter. Being there helped me realize I can let go of that extra stuff and focus on my goals. I left feeling unstoppable, like I really can go after whatever I want to do.
Here are some of the lessons I took away from the day:
Get involved in your community.
Stop saying “I’m sorry” and “I don’t care”
You don’t have to know exactly what you want to be to be successful.
Don’t be afraid to say no.
College isn’t the only path to success.
Internships, internships, internships!
Live your life for yourself, not for other people.
Be 100% yourself, 100% of the time.
And most importantly: look out for one another and embrace sisterhood.
I’m so grateful I got to be part of this. Now I know: when women uplift each other, we are unstoppable.
🤷♀️ What Does “Professional” Even Mean?
Rethinking professionalism, one outfit (and one belief) at a time.
I keep thinking about how many of us were taught to show up in public, especially in workplaces, in ways that quieted us.
Clothing was part of that. “Professional” often meant “palatable.” Unthreatening. Conforming to old, often unspoken, standards: thinness, whiteness, Eurocentric grooming, certain silhouettes, certain gender presentations. It was unspoken, but very clear: there were rules. And those rules didn’t leave a lot of room for body diversity, cultural expression, gender fluidity, creativity, or rest.
And if you didn’t, or couldn’t, conform? You risked being read as unprofessional, unserious, unworthy.
But here’s the thing: those standards were never neutral. And they were never built with everyone in mind.
So what if we stopped striving to meet them? What if “professional” didn’t mean shrinking ourselves, but showing up fully, creatively, and as we are? What if we get to decide what dressing with intention looks like; for our bodies, our cultures, our values, our seasons of life?
Lately, I’ve been using a clothing subscription service (NUULY, but there are others) as one small way I practice this. Each month, I choose pieces that feel good on my body, in my skin. Not because they “fit the mold,” but because they feel aligned with how I want to show up. Confident. Comfortable. Creative.
And it’s not just for work.
I notice it when I’m taking my kids to school, when I grab coffee with a friend, when I’m running errands. I feel more at ease in my own skin. More grounded. More joyful. And my personal style, what feels good to me, has started to emerge in ways I wasn’t expecting.
I want a world where “professional” (and “put-together,” and “showing up”) can mean:
✨ Whole
✨ Rested
✨ Expressive
✨ Aligned
✨ Joyful
And I’m reminded how much this matters when I see it through my daughter’s eyes.
This week, my daughter Nova (who is also a guest contributor in this newsletter!) attended an “Empowering Young Women Summit” a gathering where high school girls from across the region came to learn from and connect with powerful women in the community.
Nova noticed right away how these women looked. She talked about their style in such vivid detail: bold, fun, full of life. They weren’t blending in. They were showing up in their whole, embodied selves to inspire the next generation. Not just with their words, but with their presence.
Later, Nova said to me: “Mom, they’re just like you. You can do anything too.”
So that’s what I’m doing.
And that’s what I want for all of us. In workplaces, in school pickup lines, in coffee shops, in boardrooms, in parks, to show up as we are. To trust that how we choose to adorn and express ourselves is not frivolous. It’s an act of self-definition. A quiet kind of power.
So I offer you this mirror spell, a simple invocation to speak aloud (or silently) as you meet your own gaze:
I show up as I am. I am enough. I am allowed to take up space: in color, in comfort, in my own skin. I belong, exactly as I am.
✨ Thrifted Magic
Magical finds from thrift stores and the stories they carry.
If you’re a thrifter, you know how exhilarating it is to hunt for cool, old, and one-of-a-kind items. The experience of finding the perfect thing, at the perfect time, can become a beautiful memory.
For my bachelorette, I asked Jade and Jonna if we could keep it chill and just have a girls’ day. We spent the day in complete Covvn magic — thrifting, breakfast, talking non-stop all day at Jade’s mom’s lake house, and doing a new moon ritual by the fireside. That morning when we thrifted, we stopped by one of my all-time favorite little shops in Spokane—Veronica’s Thrift (if you’re local to Spokane, check them out!).
First thing when you walk in is a wall of earrings—tagged by hand, super affordable, and usually under $5. The whole place is full of little treasures, like someone’s cool aunt curated it just for you.
And there they were: two absolute gems. • One pair: vintage champagne drops with bronze scalloped hinges—elegant, moody, romantic. • The other: low-hanging bronze disco balls. Pure Palm Springs energy.
I grabbed them both, thinking one would be perfect for the honeymoon. I didn’t expect one would become part of my actual wedding day.
The night before my wedding when I got into town, I laid out all my jewelry and showed my mom and sisters. When my mom saw the champagne drops, she paused. “I think those are the ones,” she said.
And just like that, I knew she was right.
With love and moonlight,
Covvn