There Are No Girls on the Internet
There Are No Girls on the Internet

Girlboss Is Back And This Time She's Selling You AI

June 2, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

In 2014, Sophia Amoruso published #Girlboss, a pink-covered memoir about building a vintage clothing empire from dumpster diving. A decade later, the same cultural playbook is being dusted off and sold to women again — only this time the product is not a book or a course, but AI. Bridget Todd, host of There Are No Girls on the Internet, joins the hosts of Stuff Mom Never Told You to trace the direct line from the "lean in" era to the current push to get women to adopt generative AI, and to argue that the pitch is structurally identical: individual women are told they are the problem, and the solution is to optimize harder within a system that was not built for them.

The same sales pitch, new product

The original girl boss era of the 2010s, Todd explains, was built on a specific promise: if women worked hard enough, leaned in enough, and spoke the right way in meetings, they could overcome systemic inequality through sheer individual effort. The problem was never the gender pay gap, lack of childcare, or biased workplaces — it was that women weren't trying hard enough. The message came from figures like Sheryl Sandberg (author of Lean In) and Amoruso, and it was aspirational for a very narrow demographic. As one host notes, it always felt like it was "for upper class white people."

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What you'll learn

  • 1 (03:48) **Bridget Todd Introduces the Thesis: Girlboss Is Back, Now Selling AI** - Bridget frames the episode: the same voices from the 2010s "lean in" era are now selling women on AI adoption, using the same scolding, individual-responsibility pitch.
  • 2 (07:35) **Defining the Girlboss Era and Its Core Flaw** - The hosts unpack what the girlboss phenomenon was and why it failed women.
  • 3 (10:54) **Bridget's Personal Journey Through Girlboss Culture** - Bridget shares how she was drawn to entrepreneurship as a Black woman, but found the dominant girlboss message confusing and exclusionary.
  • 4 (15:50) **The Pivot: How AI Is Being Sold as the New Lean-In** - Bridget argues that the same figures are now using AI as the product, with an identical "adapt or be left behind" message.
  • 5 (19:54) **Reese Witherspoon's AI Video and the Scolding Tone** - Bridget critiques a viral video where Reese Witherspoon, standing in her kitchen, warns women they'll be left behind if they don't use AI.
  • 6 (25:34) **Reese Witherspoon's Pattern: Crypto, NFTs, and Now AI** - Bridget notes that Witherspoon made the same "get in now or be left behind" pitch for crypto and NFTs in 2021, which turned out poorly.
  • 7 (32:15) **Mel Robbins and the Dangerous Financial Advice** - Bridget breaks down how self-help guru Mel Robbins promoted Microsoft Copilot for financial planning without warning users about privacy risks.

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Show Notes

The girlboss era promised that if women just worked hard enough, leaned in hard enough, optimized hard enough, equality was within reach. It wasn't. And now, a decade later, the same voices are back with the same urgency and the same "you'll be left behind" framing. The product this time? AI.

Bridget sits down with Samantha and Anney from Stuff Mom Never Told You to talk about why Sheryl Sandberg, Reese Witherspoon, Mel Robbins, and the original girlboss herself Sophia Amoruso are all suddenly very invested in getting women onto AI platforms and why the women who aren't rushing to adopt it might actually be the ones paying closest attention.

 

 

Let us know what you think by emailing [email protected] or leaving a comment on Spotify. 

Bridget's forthcoming audiobook with Simon & Schuster, Love At First Prompt, explores AI, sex, and intimate relationships. Pre-order at LoveAtFirstPrompt.ai

Follow Bridget: Instagram | TikTok | YouTube | Bluesky

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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