The December Good Batch
A Year of AND
Welcome to the December Good Batch!
Each month, I gather up the best conversations with women over 40 doing remarkable things, the ideas fueling our courage, and what I can’t get enough of right now.
2025 held everything, all at once.
My intrepid grandma, the woman who showed me that life doesn’t end at 50 or 60 or 70 or 80 or even 90 (much less 40!), swung her last turn of the hula hoop. She did headstands until her final days and taught me that growing old isn’t for sissies.
AND I turned 50 and celebrated with 100 Uplifters. Half a century of living, learning, stumbling, growing.
AND somehow, in the middle of it all, my biggest dream happened. (BIG news coming in the new year! I can barely contain myself.)
AND through it all, every single week, I sat down with an inspiring midlife woman who taught me about life and grief and resilience. Who showed me how to be courageous when challenges and dreams felt bigger than me. Who reminded me that we don’t do hard things alone.
AND on a broader scale, the world felt like it was at war. We asked ourselves over and over if we were living through a modern holocaust. We tried to sort out how to honor this moment with our voices and time, how to be good humans for all humans in the face of unthinkable suffering.
AND midlife women finally started being heard.
In November 2025, the FDA removed the black box warning on hormone replacement therapy, reversing more than two decades of fear and misinformation that denied millions of women life-changing treatment. As FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary said, “For too long, issues of women’s health have been underrecognized. Women and their physicians should make decisions based on data, not fear.”
Halle Berry lobbied Congress for menopause research funding, declaring at a press conference outside the U.S. Capitol, “I’m in menopause!” Michigan launched “Menopause: It’s a Movement” with Governor Whitmer, hosting listening sessions across the state. Academic medical centers from Mayo Clinic to NYU to UCLA opened dedicated menopause programs. The UK appointed menopause “Tzars.” Menopause societies launched in Africa and the Middle East where none existed before.
Drew Barrymore experienced her first perimenopausal hot flash live on her talk show and shared it on social media. An ABC News host paused her segment saying, “I’m having such a perimenopausal hot flush right now, live on air.” These moments of radical honesty created conversations that had been silenced for generations.
But, this isn’t just about menopause. It’s a recognition that midlife isn’t about managing decline, it’s about leveraging everything we’ve learned for our most powerful chapter yet.
So here we are at the end of 2025, holding grief AND joy in the same hands. Honoring what we’ve lost while celebrating what’s emerging. Doing the impossible math of living fully even when our hearts are broken.
Your 10 Most-Read Issues of 2025
These are the pieces that resonated most with you this year. Thank you for reading, for sharing, for letting these stories matter.
5 Uplifting Messages:
I’m So Excited to See Where Your Past Takes You
5 Uplifter Stories:
#133: On Motherhood, Identity, and Resilience with Hala Alyan
#108: The Cinnamon Toast Philosophy with my grandma
#135: How to Hold Less with Elena Brower
#127: Confessions of a Late-Blooming Gen-X Weirdo with Sari Botton
#113: How Love Transforms Into Legacy with Jennifer Allebach, who Lost Her Husband to ALS
Looking Ahead
2026 is going to be full of AND too. And we know we can handle it all (and maybe even learn and grow and thrive) because we’ve seen some stuff by now, friends.
We’re expanding The Uplifters in ways I never imagined possible. Stay tuned for the announcement in early January.
Until then, I’m holding this truth close for all of us: We are not running out of runway. We are not too late. We are exactly where we need to be, doing exactly what this moment is perfect for.
Thank you for being part of this community. For showing up week after week. For believing that midlife is when many of us truly hit our stride.
Here’s to the year that held everything. And here’s to whatever comes next.
With love and courage,
Aransas
Ways to Support Uplifters:
Uplifters Live - March 2026, mark your calendar! Sign up HERE to get first access. Tickets go on sale January 8!
Share this newsletter with someone who needs to know they’re not too late
So proud and inspired by you Aransas! Can’t wait to hear what is coming !!!!
Your grandmother seems like a very cool and fun- loving woman. What an inspiration! My
condolences on her passing.