Tamsen Fadal

Hi Reader, You have probably seen pieces of my closet journey on social media. And the response has been something I genuinely did not expect. Thousands of you commented and DMed me, not about the clothes, about what the clothes were standing in for… The career you left, the body that changed, the version of yourself you are not sure you recognize anymore, the things you have been avoiding opening the door to. So today I want to give you something practical. A real guide to doing this for...

Hi Reader, This is a totally embarrassing story, but when have I ever held back with you?!Back in my news days, I wore fitted sheath dresses on set. The lights were hot, and I was a sweaty mess. But it wasn't the sweat that got me... it was the smell. And I mean a smell I did not recognize. I literally remember thinking, oh my god, what IS that? And then realizing, with total horror, that it was me... I'd send the dresses to the cleaner and they'd come back still smelling so I threw a few...

Hi Reader, I have a car in Los Angeles. I have not driven it in years. I kept making excuses… Too far, I’ll take an Uber. Right around the corner, I’ll walk. I will just wait until Ira and I can go together. LA is not exactly a walkable city, so I have been taking a lot of Waymos, those self-driving cars that are kind of terrifying and kind of fascinating. It took me an embarrassingly long time to realize I had quietly developed a driving anxiety I did not even know was there. My first time...

Hi Reader, I just went to my first cardiologist appointment. I am 55 years old. And I am almost embarrassed to type that. My father went to a cardiologist. My grandmother went to a cardiologist. Somehow it never once crossed my mind that I was supposed to too. Nobody ever said the words to me. Not one doctor in thirty-five years of annual appointments. And it turns out I was about twenty years late. Here is what nobody tells women and what I think every single one of us deserves to know:...

Hi Reader, Can I ask you something? Have you ever had one glass of wine at dinner, gone to bed feeling completely fine, and then woken up at 2:30 in the morning with your heart racing and your brain spinning through every worry it could find? Lying there for two hours, exhausted, wondering what is wrong with you? Or maybe it is the way your mood tanks the next day for no reason you can explain. The workout you talked yourself out of, the food choices that made no sense, the puffy face in the...

Hi Reader, Before we get into today's newsletter, I finally get to share something I've been dying to tell you. Melinda Gates, someone I've admired for years and have had on my dream guest list since day one of my podcast, is joining The Tamsen Show to make an announcement about women's health that is going to change everything for us. You can be the first to hear our conversation. Listen here. The conversations I have on The Tamsen Show have become my life's work because I want you to know...

Hi Reader, My stylist put me in a short utility skort recently and I looked at her like she had completely lost her mind. I am 55 years old. I have not worn anything that short since a time I would rather not think about. And she just looked back at me with total confidence and said trust me. She was right. I have never felt more like myself in a piece of clothing in awhile. There is something about wearing something you thought wasn't for you anymore and realizing it absolutely is that does...

Hi Reader, Do you ever feel like there's SO much information on health and fitness that you don't know where to start? And when you finally do start, you can’t stick with it? After finding out I lost five pounds of muscle and gained three pounds of fat earlier this year, I was determined to get my strength back. I buried myself in research trying to figure out the perfect workout routine and became hyper fixated on the aesthetics of it all. When I didn’t see the results I wanted when I...

Hi Reader, I am so excited that so many of you were inspired by my closet clean out and want to join me. But let me be honest with you, some of it absolutely sucked. It was not the cute, organized afternoon I pictured. I cried more than once. I found a section of clothes from my early 40s that I keep promising myself I will fit into again. I had to accept I am not that size anymore and I am not trying to be, because I like the woman I have become. I found pieces from my news career that I had...

Hi Reader, Okay so I have to tell you what happened. I did a full closet clean-out with a stylist last week and it was one of the best things I've done for my brain in a long time (I documented the whole thing, you can check it out here). Seeing the clutter actually leave your space does something to your head. But here's where it got humbling. We got to the sneakers and my stylist's face said everything. The face of someone who has seen too much. She said most of them weren't working with my...