Welcome back to the Girl and the Gov® Diaries.

If you’re new here — hi, I’m Sammy – the blonde behind Girl and the Gov®. This little corner of the internet, or arm of GATG rather,  is where I share what’s been crossing my desk and my DMs: the finds I can’t stop sending to friends, the things I added to cart, the side quests I found myself on, and convos with people doing genuinely interesting things. I’d hint at what you’ll find when you scroll, but that would ruin the fun ;)

Happy reading and happy to have you here <3

Things of amusement I’d send to a friend

The misc files 

→ KLEIN BLUE AND THE DEMOCRATS: Klein Blue is fashion's color of the moment — Marie Claire made it official — but I've been sitting with a bigger question: what if it's also a political one? I shared a TikTok on this recently, because I think there's something worth paying attention to here beyond the aesthetic. Consumer trends don't exist in a vacuum, and the savviest campaigns know that [hence why I’m screaming “use a consumer strategy in all-things politics, all the time]. A search for "Klein Blue hats"  or “Klein Blue shoes,” can lead somewhere interesting [hello, Pinterest-to-back link pipeline]  if the right people are thinking strategically about where it lands — merch, content, backlinks, entry points for people who aren't glued to political media but are very much paying attention to what's cool. Culture has always been a door. The question is who's standing on the other side of it, and often the answer is a voter that needs to be engaged with.

P.S. & BTW if you or a friend of a friend of a friend are looking to connect the dots between consumer strategy and political strategy, Office Hours seshes/brainstorms/chats are always available to book here.

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→ POLITICAL COVERAGE IS SAVING THE GLOSSIES & GOSSIP PUBS: As TMZ builds out its DC HQ, and glossies like Marie Claire and Harper's Bazaar wade deeper into politics — covering everything from gun reform to the Protect the Dolls campaign — something clicked for me: political coverage might just be quietly saving both the glossies and the gossip pubs. Do I have the precise data to back this up? No, but I do have a well-trained eye for when a brand is reading the room and making smart moves because of it. The media landscape is becoming politics heavy – and yes, everything is political, but not everything is always covered from a direct political lens or with a political lens in mind. In this era of Trump, that’s shifted. Even the mundane has an in your face political story to tell. So as the decisions from those that make the decision to drop bombs and then go to Disney continue to collide, audiences are looking for both info, snark, and comfort – something both of these types of pubs can provide.

Both glossies and gossip pubs are surprisingly well-positioned to deliver exactly that. What gives them an edge is something legacy news outlets have largely burned through: trust. For the glossies, it's a case of benign neglect working in their favor — readers drifted toward social media before forming strong opinions about whether Vogue or Marie Claire could be believed, so the skepticism that plagues traditional news never fully attached to them.

For the gossip pubs, the calculus is different but the result is similar. Snark and irreverence have become native to how people consume media online, and outlets like TMZ are discovering that layering actual journalism on top of that foundation — however sharp-elbowed — only makes them more credible, not less.

So, alls to say, if I were running one of these pubs, better believe I’d be integrating political coverage.

Finds, things I’ve got my eye on, & generally cool sh*t worth a click

ICYM-a-link, here they are

Side quests, main quests, & generally fun sh*t to check out or do

Convos with friends at the intersection of culture, politics, & everything else

If you don’t know my friend Lucy Ritzmann, now you’re going to get the chance to with a snippet of our almost two-hour catch-up chat. When I say I had to edit this down for brevity, giiiiirls you have no idea. We are both certified yappers, which is why we both write a lot of newsletters, but alas…I digress. The top-line is this convo hits some fun yet important points, and if there were a section that I’d say is can’t miss, it’s the one on face-to-face friendships versus shoulder-to-shoulder. Happy reading!

astrological sign:

I'm an October Libra! Probably very cliché that I'm in law school now lol

playing on the headphones:

Couch!!! If you like Olivia Dean [as you should], I think you'll like Couch.

the closet essential:

I have two. I just got a Monty domino bag, and it’s everything to me now. Also, I switched from Nuuly to BNTO for my clothing subscription needs, and I fear I’m never going back.

Must-scroll social accounts:

Besides @lucy_ritz_ on TikTok hehe, I must shout out @ohkay.shop, who hand-makes the "dump your republican boyfriend" shirts, and my fave BookToker, @edensarchives, who has impeccable reading/everything taste

ON NEW YORK vs. DC:

Lucy Ritzmann: “You know, I'm a New Yorker through and through. My grandma, who is a Chicagoan, said to my parents when they were raising me in NYC, "You're going to ruin her. She's never going to be able to live anywhere else.” And that’s true, I’m ride or die NY. I think the thing I love about New York is you can really be any type of person.

I'm such a DC hater, but I have fierce loyalty now having lived here for so long. It's frustrating that the vibe completely shifts every four to eight years, less so now because a lot of Republicans are scared to live in DC. There’s the constant tensions between these people who don't invest in this city at all, won't actually live here, and the people who have called the city home for generations. So much of that could be fixed with statehood. I had a come to Jesus moment where I was like “oh what I'm criticizing is a policy choice that's actually deeply unfair and equitable.”

SK: “You make such a good point that everything is derived from a policy choice. Like the way the city operates, all the cultures that are able to exist or not exist or coexist, right? Those come from policy decisions. Did we invest in opening a new park in a certain area? Then extending a subway line? Or did we provide more event permits? You know what I mean? All of these things create a culture or take away from a [place’s] culture. I think that's an underspoken part of when you go somewhere and you're like, "Huh, this has a certain feel or I like it or I don't like it," and thinking about what decisions made it like that.”

Lucy Ritzmann: “A lot of this city that it drives me crazy because I'm from NY where there's a train every three blocks. I'm so used to getting wherever I need to go really quickly and affordably. Is the L train sometimes on fire or underwater? Yes, but for the most part it works. Here [DC] we have massive train deserts. I think all of us who are young professionals living in cities, when we think about our inconveniences, we just complain about it, which I do all the time, but there's actually stuff we can do about it. These are all choices we have the potential to make an impact on.”

THE GROUP CHAT CORRESPONDENT NEWSLETTER:

SK: “I really want to talk about your newsletter aka the Group Chat Correspondent, which is so iconic. The fact that you do this 2x a week. How do you find the time? Because  newsletter writing for anyone reading this, it's really fun to do, but it's a lot of work if you’re doing it right. How do you balance that and getting out two a week?”

Lucy Ritzmann:” I think it’s  because in my last job I ran between 5-7 newsletters a week, so I was just already broken.”

SK: “Five to seven? Oh my GOD.”

Lucy Ritzmann: “I was co-author lead author on two usually, but then I was lead editor, fact checker, producer on the rest for two years. I broke my brain doing that, but in a helpful way it turned out. The 2x a week was also very intentional, knowing I was going to be a 1L this year. This summer I definitely want to get back into my editorial bag and I think and hope the format will lend itself to being able to write more essays. I find so much joy writing this newsletter especially because it’s finally combining my pop culture and politics interests, like this is what’s in my brain all the time anyway. I find it deeply cathartic.”

SK: “It's always such a good read because like what you said about it mixing politics and culture, pop culture, and all these different things, that’s very much how my brain works as well. With politics, you can’t really think about it without thinking about culture, and visa versa. Everything's domino, everything's a puzzle piece and whatnot.”

FACE-TO-FACE FRIENDSHIPS & THE CURIOUSITY CRISIS: 

SK: “With the GCC, you do these TikToks explaining some of these stories and you position it as “these are the things you’re going to do at happy hour.” First of all love that because it's a fun way of sharing information right? And second, it provides a way out of the curiosity crisis we as a society seem to be in.”

Lucy Ritzmann: “The thing that's so interesting about the TikTok of it all is that it was one of those ideas where I didn't even register it as an idea. It was inspired by these viral TikToks of this girl's dad who would go to the bar with his friends and they would print out a piece of paper that was their talking agenda. It was the cutest thing ever. It was like “talk about sports fishing question mark,” and it became a happy thing. Over a year later, for my TikTok, I was envisioning this piece of paper that you're gonna bring to happy hour and go through the list with your girls. I've realized – to your point of everyone just seeming kind of flat – that everyone feels too anxious to engage. Being peers with a lot of people now who are younger than us, they have anxiety that’s off the charts. It makes me reflect on how all of them have this, and sometimes it's just easier [to engage] when you have a prompt. I feel like just so many people feel like they need a permission structure to share all their takes and if I can provide that, I would love to provide that.”

SK: “I think that this stuff is important and also I think it's super – and this is not an issue I have in my friend group – but I feel like there's a lot of friend groups out there where they don't really know each other. They might be like, "Oh yeah, I know this person likes green shirts and that person eats pickles." I don't know why those are the two examples that come to my mind. Cannot tell you. But if you were to ask like what do you think their values are? They couldn't really tell you. I think that these types of topics, presented this way, have the ability for people to get to know who their peers are, who your friends actually are, you know? I’ll also say, I see that issue way more with guys. Sometimes I'm like, "What do you guys talk about?" Are you guys just grunting at each other? Like it must be that. Like it must just be sound effects because it's not even football season.”

Lucy Ritzmann: “Have you heard of shoulder-to-shoulder versus face-to-face friendships?”

SK: “Oh my god. Wait, no??”

Lucy Ritzmann: “It's so good. Oh, Sammy. Oh, you're gonna love it.”

SK: “I’m already obsessed.”

Lucy Ritzmann: “It's basically that women are trained to have face-to-face friendships. So we sit down at a cafe and we look at each other, and we ask questions, and we engage directly. Whereas men are almost universally taught to have shoulder-to-shoulder friendships where they sit with each other looking out at something else and they talk about that other thing. I feel like a lot of men end up weaving their feelings into that. Like you're talking about football but you're not really talking about football.

I always say that to my boyfriend, like, you know, he'll be gone watching something or doing something for hours. I'm like, "So, how is their girlfriend?" And he's like, "I don't know." I'm like, "What?" Like, "You were there so long."

SK: “Right. How do you not ask??”

Lucy Ritzmann: “Because they literally never turn to each other and have face-to-face interactions. I think a lot of men are genuinely scared of face-to-face now. I always tell my poor boyfriend I'm like, "Look at them. Talk to them." It makes me sad, like do they ever ask each other how they are? Probably not because they're just not trained to. That's what increases loneliness and so many other issues. I think if you are a mother of a young son, teaching him face-to-face would be a huge asset for his life and his mental health.”

SK: “I'm going to be applying this to every one of my guy friends for if they're shoulder-to-shoulder, or if they're face to face with people. You just truly opened the door of a new activity for my friends this weekend.” 

THE LABABAS: 

SK: “Shoulder-to-shoulder aside, I do want to talk about your Lababas because they’re so cute. Like find me on a trip to Ireland.”

Lucy Ritzmann: “Highly recommend. I’m so thrilled by the Lababas for many reasons. One of them being I have it on my going out purse and it's so fun to talk about at the bar. This was my biggest example to date of something that started online becoming a really meaningful IRL experience. As soon as we started researching Ireland hotels, I started getting the Lababa TikToks. Then we went into the store and the owner happened to be in the window doing the  mannequin when I came in and I made a b-line for the Lababa rack. She was like, "Oh my god,  did you see the TikTok about us?" I was like, “yes,” and she brings out all of her nieces and nephews who gave us a list of all the other small businesses in Galway.

She was like, "Would you post a TikTok?" I think they were asking everyone that came in that was interested in the Lababa. And I was like, "Sure, I don't think it'll get that many views. I'm not an influencer, but I'm happy to post it.” Then I got 150K views on it. And all of the comments –  it’s literally the most positive comment section I've ever seen in my entire life. Everyone is just sending pictures of theirs. That restored my faith in the internet for at least another year. I was like, "okay, there's some really positive things that can happen.” There was literally one hate comment in like the hundreds of comments on that video.”

SK: “It’s funny because there's so many bad things that happen on the internet. There's so many examples where you're like JFC can we go to a time before the internet. And then there's other things like that, where it's like this small business that blew up and now has all this traffic and also all of this like positive energy around it and it's great. And with Lababa, I'm sorry who is hating on that? That one person is crazy.”

Lucy Ritzmann: “I was like, "Please, like, how could you hate on this?" That's why I was like, "If you're pro Labubu, like, I'm with I'm okay with you. I see you. But like, why do we have to put a Lababa down to be pro? Like, please, can we all coexist?”

SK: “There are those things –  I've had a few of those moments this week like writing Gov Hub where I was like can you imagine explaining this to a founding father?”

Le fin.

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