The HerStories Project is a writing and publishing community for women. Our goal is to have a meaningful conversation about Gen-X women at midlife, and to create a space for expression, sharing, celebrating women’s voices, and supporting each other during a complicated stage of life. We offer online courses, writing resources, an advice column, and calls for submission, and we have currently published four essay collections. Our recent relaunch explores what it means to be a Gen-X woman at midlife, and we are excited to dive into this topic with a new membership community, guest essays, and blog posts.

Our Membership Community

HerStories Writers: a supportive community of midlife writers

Our Free Writing Courses

The HerStories Project Five-Day Personal Essay Challenge

The Balanced Writer: A Five-Day Email Course

Our Paid Writing Courses

Hundreds of writers — from all levels — have taken our writing classes.

To find out our current selection of paid classes, please click here.

Guest Posts

(Interesting in writing a guest post for us? We pay! Click here for guidelines.)

“When Dual Unemployment Tests a Marriage” by Liz Alterman

“I’m So Glad My Friends Don’t Understand Me” by Magnolia Ripkin

“Gen X, Divorce, and Dating” by Kai McGee

“I Gave Birth to Writing” by Elana Rabinowitz

“Learning to Swim: An Anxiety Disorder Journey” by Marcia Kester Doyle

“That’s My High School: A Reunion” by Melissa Uchiyama

“Reckoning With the Wreckage: A Midlife Love Story of Choosing Me” by Shannon Lell

“Nothing Like I Expected” by Lindsey Mead

“As Long As There Aren’t Trampolines” by Victoria Fedden

“Furious Awakening” by Emily Nichols Grossi

“Do What’s a Blast” by Ann Imig

“Defying Cultural Norms: Midlife Women Who Refuse to Fade” by Dana Schwartz

Our Advice Column: HerTake With Nina Badzin

For years, Nina Badzin has given practical, compassionate advice to our readers.

Want to submit a question to Nina? Click here.

Here are a few recent columns:

“Should This Ambivalent Wife Leave Her Marriage?”

“A Friend Who Only Communicates Via Text”

“Can the Adults’ Friendship Survive After the Kids’ Friendship Ends?”

Our Story

The HerStories Project is in its own sort of midlife as well. We have been through quite a few incarnations since our beginning. Over five years ago, we—both new-ish bloggers—read a book about friendship (She Matters: A Life in Friendships by Susanna Sonnenberg) and decided to start a blog series about women’s friendship. From that point, an anthology was born, (The HerStories Project: Women Explore the Joy, Pain, and Power of Female Friendship) as well as a new website, followed by a book specifically on friendship breakups (My Other Ex: Women’s True Stories of Leaving and Losing Friends).

We began to expand our community to focus on writing courses, columns, and calls for submissions. And did we mention that we never actually met in person until three years after we had been working together? We finally met face to face when we presented a personal essay writing workshop at the BlogHer conference. We published two more essay collections between 2015-2016, one about postpartum mood disorders (Mothering Through the Darkness) and the other about getting real about motherhood (So Glad They Told Me.)

And then, we weren’t quite sure what to do. We had explored friendship, publishing, motherhood, writing classes . . . what came next?

After reading a series of articles about Gen X women at midlife and sharing the discussion with our community, it was clear that women wanted to talk about their experiences, questions, and challenges. Our friends and readers shared their thoughts with us in a survey about their midlife experience, and we have incorporated their feedback into our latest content and offerings. We are excited about this new chapter, and can’t wait to share it with our community. Please feel free to contact us with any questions or feedback at:
info@herstoriesproject.com
Jessica@herstoriesproject.com
Stephanie@herstoriesproject.com

xo Jessica and Stephanie