Our Story

We believe in the power of us.

• In March 2020, Pixie Carlisle created Girl Friday to provide a space for her friends who wanted to learn more about pressing issues in the news and get involved with potential solutions for those challenges.

• Girl Friday’s goal is to succinctly explain complex topics and create memorable conversation starters to spread the word about global challenges that have been overlooked or are not trending topics.

• We believe that awareness impels us to action. The stories you will find on this site and on our social media platforms often include issues that are not currently above the newspaper fold or at the top of the evening news.

The Friday Brief

One newsletter for a world of good.

• The Friday Brief is a weekly newsletter that covers one pressing issue and offers ways for readers to learn more, get involved, and work together toward solutions.

• Issues are divided into four themes, and each title was created to honor women Pixie personally admires. HRH covers human rights and humanitarianism; After Six houses stories about environmental protection and conservation; 7053 focuses on justice, law, and governance; and finally, High Society looks at the ways art, culture, and sports offer solutions for our greatest challenges.

• Here are several examples of our most-read newsletters: “America is a Gun,” Remembering Rwanda, Angelina Jolie's Hope for Yemen, Make Justice a Habit, The Tide isTurning in Tehran, and “An Army with a Heart of Darkness.”

• We highlight The Friday Brief issues, and more news, on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Across social media, we use the account name Dear Girl Friday.

Bold and bookish

A book club for curious readers.

• Inspired by Reese Witherspoon and Jenna Bush Hager, Pixie created the Bold and Bookish book club to provide readers with different perspectives and insights about the issues covered in The Friday Brief.

• For example, to offer more context about current immigration news in the U.S., we read the gorgeous memoir What You Have Heard is True by Carolyn Forché. When talking about the San Carlos Apache Tribe’s ongoing campaign to save sacred land in Arizona, we read Oak Flat, a visual nonfiction masterpiece by Lauren Redniss.

• Other Bold and Bookish selections include The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Hell of a Book, Wild Swans, and They Said They Wanted Revolution. Bold and Bookish picks range from memoirs to fiction and are appropriate selections for high school readers, too.

• You can find Bold and Bookish on BookShop and Instagram.

Little Friday reads

Characters for courage and compassion.

• As the companion to Bold and Bookish, Little Friday Reads promotes books that build courage and compassion in children from nursery through grade 8. We know that children can learn about the world through great reads that open doors to new worlds.

• With the help of a friend who is a child psychologist, Pixie created Little Friday Keys: a list of qualities, skills, and traits that we look for in characters and books when selecting Little Friday Reads features.

• The list of “keys” is not meant to represent every possible attribute, and we favored options that address core behaviors. The list will be updated over time, as needed. Right now, we have twenty terrific keys that work beautifully alone and together.

• You can find Little Friday Reads on Bookshop and Instagram.