All the Cool Girls Get Fired

Me and my pal Kristina O'Neill were. So we are writing a book—with stories from women who also got canned—about what comes next. Hint: it's great.

Hey guys, remember me? It’s Laura Brown! And her occasional Substack. Or should I say Sub…slack. As you know, a few months ago I sent a dispatch (from a random airport) saying my posts would be less frequent because I was plotting other things. Well, there was one in particular: a big ol’ book. Those who follow me on social may have seen an announcement a couple of weeks ago. I’ve popped it below again here.

My favorite word on the release, by the way, is “poof.”

The book, ‘All The Cool Girls Get Fired’ sprung from, you guessed it, getting fired. It’s becoming a well-worn tale but I was canned from InStyle in February 2022, and one of my besties (and a friend I worked with for eight years previously at Harper’s BAZAAR), Kristina O’Neill was fired from WSJ. Magazine just over a year later. (The official language: “eliminated” and “stepped down.”) My firing wasn’t nearly as cinematic as “eliminated” sounds though; it was just a zoom with a boom.

Anyway, after Kristina “stepped down,” we stepped right into a bar. On the way there, I said to her, “You know what we’re gonna do? Take a picture, look really cute and caption it: ‘All The Cool Girls Get Fired.’”

It’s your cool girls! With: wine. Without: jobs.

That’s the picture. Yes, we look cute. It also reveals a lot about Kristina and my friendship that we are in front of walls of wine. But I digress…

After we posted the Instagram, the response was insane. Pourquoi? Because all too often, women are too afraid to admit they’ve been fired, trapped in some weird cycle of panic, shame, isolation, you name it. But we called it out. Guess what, we were really good at our jobs. We also got fired. Breaking news: these things can, and often, co-exist.

We spoke the next morning and immediately knew we had to write a book. There is so much misplaced fear out there, and we want to remedy that, stat. In addition, there are brilliant, successful women all over the place—in all different fields—who we know have been fired, but they feel they still have to spin it. It’s such a shame.

Anyway, I’ve been running around the place—events, the odd fashion show, my local deli—repeating tiny little Ted Talks. “It’s not you; it’s them. And that’s OK. You earned a lot of equity over your career, and you earned the right to spend it. Everything you’ve built doesn’t just go “poof” when your job goes away.”

Most importantly: “Do not attach your value to where you work; your value lies in you!” I’ll start shouting that if I need to; I’m not above it.

When we announced ‘ATCG’ a couple of weeks ago, Kristina and I were completely, immediately overwhelmed by women saying how much it’s needed. And they are not alone: they are part of a community of awesome, accomplished “girls” who have also hit that bump in the road, changed gears and accelerated into a brilliant future.

So, dear readers, I wanted to let you know what’s up. If you have a powerful friend (or you!) who once hit that speedbump and wants to share their story, please comment below or email us at contact@allthecoolgirlsgetfired.com. (You can imagine the lols we had registering that domain name. For $9.99).

We’re going to make it better; we’re going to change the culture. Ladies, we’ve worked so, so hard to get where we are: owning our challenges makes for a fuller life.

And like I keep yelling at everyone: when you look outside your career sandpit, there’s a whole beach. We promise.