Women's Health, Your Way

Ask & Search With Clara

Welcome to a new standard for women's health answers.

GIRLHOOD / Friendship Is a Rising Tide

Friendship Is a Rising Tide

Friendship Is a Rising Tide

"A rising tide lifts all boats."

Someone said that to me in the early days of Rescripted, and it stuck.

Something to know about me: I’m a girl’s girl to my core. Maybe once, in middle school, I claimed, “I just get along better with guys” (didn’t we all?). But by high school, my girlfriends were my lifelines. Cheerleading, softball, musical theatre — it was never just about winning or performing; it was about the inside jokes, the post-practice hangouts, and that feeling of belonging.

The thing about girlhood is that it teaches you early on what really matters: showing up for each other. Every day, it becomes clearer to me that we should be celebrating our friends not just for the big, ‘expected’ milestones like marriage or babies, but for the quieter, courageous moments: leaving a bad relationship, running a marathon, starting a new business, or taking a leap they’ve been scared to take.

Cheering for each other in those moments is the heart of friendship, the kind that carries you through messy breakups, toddler meltdowns, job changes, and all the unexpected twists and turns of your 30s. 

That’s why I love the idea of a “rising tide.” When one of us wins, we all win. When someone takes a step forward, it makes the path a little bit wider for everyone else. Life is bigger than any single rivalry, and there’s (quite literally) room for all of us. Because life, like friendship, like girlhood, isn’t a zero-sum game.

Ask Clara: How often is women's pain ignored?

More from GIRLHOOD

By now you've probably seen the clip of Steven Bartlett, host of Diary of a CEO, casually mentioning on a podcast that two glasses of wine — he didn't even... Read more
Earlier this week, my co-founder Abby sent me this article by Dr. Brian Levine, along with a clapping hands emoji. Finally, someone had said it: at least part of the... Read more
I speak about this so often it probably makes people uncomfortable, but I lost one of my very best friends to breast cancer six years ago, at the way-too-tender age... Read more
I finished reading Strangers by Belle Burden over the weekend in one sitting, and damn, did it live up to the hype. I've always been a sucker for a good... Read more
When I was told my 6.5-week IVF pregnancy wasn't viable, I was given a choice I didn't fully understand I was making. My doctor recommended misoprostol — fast, effective, appropriate... Read more
If, like me, you came up in the early 2000s, you were probably sold the idea that your vagina needed to smell like a spring meadow. Summer's Eve was in... Read more
I was deep in research for a column about the perimenopause supplement boom when I came across the TikTok trend: women taking Allegra and Pepcid together to manage hot flashes,... Read more
I should start by saying: my parents are nowhere near "old." They had me when they were 20, so if you do the math, they're barely old enough to be... Read more
I have never once, in my 37 years of life, cried after sex. Not after good sex, not after bad sex, not after the kind that genuinely moves you. It... Read more
May is Women's Health Month, which sounds celebratory... until you look at the numbers underneath it. Seven to ten years. That's the average time it takes to get an endometriosis... Read more