Darling, your jealousy is showing and it clashes with your bio - Abbey Wade

Why I am furious right now.

If a woman rises too quickly, speaks too loudly, or enters the room without apologising or isn’t, God forbid, humble enough —watch how fast the temperature drops…

Glennon Doyle has left Substack.

Not because of trolls or bigots, or far right/ anti gay/ trans whatever types, no.

She’s left because of other women. Other women writers and creators. Other women who I would have thought were like us/ me.

These women decided she didn’t belong here.

That she was too big, too rich, too visible.

That she hadn’t arrived “graciously” enough.

That Substack is for the quiet, striving creatives—and she dared to walk in with her chirpy note and her video with her pal Liz G like she already had a seat at the table.

And so the pile-on began. Awful to witness and probably horrendous to have directed at you.

Jealousy disguised as discernment.

Scarcity disguised as values.

Gatekeeping masked as integrity.

One point I read a few times was that, instead of hanging out with Elizabeth Gilbert, she should have been making friends with smaller writers with less ‘platform’.

Well maybe she would have but now we will never know.

What I do know is when a writer with less than 1k subscribers,

Abbey Wade

wrote a piece about the whole debacle, Glennon replied, thanked her and sent her love.

The title to this piece is a quote from Abbey’s excellent article, so beautifully and cleanly written. Take note, mean girls.

Glennon Deserves to be Here Just as Much as You Do; Settle Down

And yes, I’m bloody furious—not just for Glennon herself, because this is exactly what keeps women stuck.

We say we want women to rise. But only if they rise slowly. Quietly. With proper humility.

Only if they stay relatable. Kind.

Only if they don’t make too much money, or get too much attention, or seem too sure of themselves.

Only if they are perpetually giving, generous, self sacrificing. Grateful. Grounded.

Otherwise? Well, we tear them down. We call them selfish, arrogant, out of touch. We tell them they’ve had their turn.

“Doesn’t she have enough money already?'“ was just one ugly cry I read and that summed it up. Classy huh!

The scarcity mindset was so disappointing. If someone bigger than you arrives here, your slice of the pie just got smaller - not so my friend! The pie is infinite. Can’t you even see that?!

And all this from the love and light in yoga pants brigade. Wow.

Oh and if you wanted more readers here like you said you did? As Julia Robert’s character in Pretty Woman said ‘big mistake. HUGE’.

Because in leaving here and explaining herself (in a very calm and dignified email to her I would imagine not inconsiderable list) she just told a shit tonne of people that Substack as a platform wasn’t good for her mental health. So, yeah. Slow clap for the mean girls.

If your feminism has no room for successful, powerful women and if it only champions the underdog while vilifying those who’ve “made it”—it’s not REALLY feminism. It’s fear. It’s insecurity. It’s a self doubt unchecked.

If we truly believe in sisterhood and collective liberation, we don’t get to slam the door shut behind us.

Glennon didn’t leave because she was too big for Substack. She left because too many women made it clear that they couldn’t handle her bigness.

That should trouble all of us.

Night night,

Sarah x