Working Girl’s Guide #53: Your family secrets are for sale and everyone has a side hustle now

Cities are sooo back, I’m dressed like a picnic blanket, and AI is going to steal your job.

Big Pharma purchased 23andMe, including all the data behind those secret family trysts

Remember when 23andMe helped you trace your roots or find long-lost cousins? Now it’s been scooped up by pharma giant Regeneron for $256 million after filing for bankruptcy. That’s a dramatic drop from its $6 billion peak. Regeneron outbid six others to grab what really mattered: genetic data from up to 15 million users (cannot even imagine how many surprise relationships/long-lost sibling stories that included). It plans to use the info to fuel drug development, while allegedly promising to stick to “existing privacy policies” (could that be any vaguer?). The deal doesn’t include 23andMe’s telehealth arm, Lemonaid Health, which is shutting down.

Cities are growing, population is rising, everyone’s moving South

Remember those five seconds when everyone and their mother was moving to smallish towns all over the country and relegating big cities to the top of their giveaway pile? I have good news for my city girls: we are SO back, baby: ALL of the country’s biggest urban cities grew in population since 2023. New York City added 87,000 new residents, Houston added 43,000 and L.A. has 31,000. The region with the fastest urban growth? The Sun Belt (fancy term for The South), thanks to its gorgeous weather and reasonable cost of living compared to cities like New York and San Francisco (deeply felt).

Side hustles are paying the bills

A new LendingTree survey says 44% of Americans have a side hustle, and nearly half are doing it just to keep up with living expenses. The survey tells us that most side gigs don’t bring in tons (71% of side hustlers earn under $500/month), but they’re everywhere: video editing, delivery apps, and drop-shipping are some of the most popular. And side hustlers aren’t just for people scraping by: 40% of hustlers are already making six figures at their day jobs, but feel the need to earn more to keep up with bills. With the cost of living still rising, millions more are expected to join the side hustle movement by 2027.

One day, everyone you know is spilling beer on the floor of your first apartment, and the next, you’re hosting friends at the grownup place you share with bae. And you can’t stop thinking about how many red Solo cups you’re about to wake up to (vibe kill). It was our first time hosting friends at our place, and I’m happy to report that our people left a completely reasonable, manageable mess for us (and some of them even stayed to help clean up!). And I actually did have fun when I wasn’t reminding everyone to please use a coaster.

This is the last time I’ll share this pic of me sitting on boxes filled with folders, because today marks the final restock of my workwear collection. If it’s May and you still don’t have a trench, do you even have a corporate job at an office that’s usually 15 degrees colder than it needs to be? Speaking of freezing cold offices, this dress is both a sweater and a tank, which makes it ideal for that elusive office-to-night-out moment that is basically my entire Summer vision board. She’s cute, she has a slit that I promise is not as pronounced as it looks in this pic, she’s a stunning neutral that you can pair with heels, boots, sneaks, or even the perfect trench coat.

May has a way of creeping up on us with serious chaotic vibes: Q2 goals ramping up, calendar invites multiplying, and the sudden social pressure to make the most of warmer weather. If you’ve ever felt mentally scrambled by noon (Annie can confirm this is me every day), then this one’s for you. We’re turning our lunch breaks into a quick nervous system reset. Not a productivity sprint. Not a social scroll. Just ten minutes of something analog and quiet. Think: writing in your notes app with no agenda, flipping through a book or magazine, or eating a real lunch without your phone in your hand.

It works because it gives your parasympathetic nervous system a fighting chance. Studies show even brief periods of unfocused rest improve cognitive function, decision-making, and memory.

If AI doesn’t steal your job, it might just help you fake your way into a better one. This week on Demoted, I’m joined by Jack Crivici-Kramer and Nick Martell from The Best One Yet podcast, and we’re digging into what it means to future-proof your career while the economy slow-cooks itself into a recession casserole. We’re talking job-hopping in a downturn (bold move or professional spiral?), why tariffs are suddenly making your burrito more expensive, and how nepo-preneurship might be the most recession-proof strategy out there. We also get into the ethics of AI cheating apps (is it lying if a robot does it?), the weird genius of disco laundromats, and the hot take I didn’t see coming: creatives might just outpace coders in the AI arms race.

Thanks for reading!