About @ifollowher
The internet offers us nearly unlimited access to information, but it’s also a hot mess where it seems harder than ever to find anything. @ifollowher is building a digital village where we can find and share helpful tools and information from reliable sources.
In this village we highlight expertise and share the social media accounts, books, podcasts, apps, websites, services, and organizations that make our busy lives a bit more manageable.
Meet the Founder
At @ifollowher, we believe that women deserve to lead lives with joy, balance, and support. Our world is not designed to make that life easy to build, leaving women asking, “where is that village I was promised?!” Our founder, Ashleigh Georgia, launched @ifollowher to build that village for all of us.
A genuine and enthusiastic individual, Ashleigh possesses a unique outlook on the world. She’s a biracial Black woman, a millennial, lawyer, mom, caregiver, neurodivergent over-thinker, advisor, nerd, and aspiring optimist. Ashleigh draws on her diverse experiences to connect. Her academic and professional background provide the foundation for mission-focused strategy development, but thoroughly unstuffy.
Ashleigh graduated from Wellesley College and Harvard Law School. Prior to launching @ifollowher Ashleigh worked as a public defender, law school administrator, career counselor, and practical lawyering skills professor.
Work with Ashleigh 1:1 or as a group to build balance into your days. Don’t forget to follow along here and on our social media accounts for new suggestions from the village, and drop your recommendations for who else we should follow!
Guiding Principles
Every community has its rules. Laws, codes of conduct, terms of service, norms, and expectations that shape our experiences. This digital village is shaped by our guiding principles. These principles assume some basics. Black lives matter. Trans women are women. The legal system is broken. All of our systems should be more accessible. White supremacy exists and is bad. Patriarchy exists and is bad. Love is love is love. Genocide is bad. Here, these truths are settled.
In no particular order, the Guiding Principles of the @ifollowher digital village are:
Objective truth, facts, and history exist.
@ifollow her does not operate in the post-fact society. We do not argue the facts. We seek expertise and let the experts explain the facts. Across @ifollowher platforms we begin with a shared understanding of the facts. Honesty is critical and has to be respectfully practiced in order to be effective. Knowledge of history is relevant to understand the present.
Aspire to Optimism.
The @ifollowher approach to optimism considers both interpersonal and global manifestations of optimism. Interpersonally, we aspire to give others the benefit of the doubt. To not assume malicious intentions on first interactions. The emphasis on interpersonal optimism is not out of naivete or a belief that everyone is or must be operating with the best intentions, but rather that a discussion about intentions at all can be a distraction.
The state of global affairs can leave anyone feeling a bit cynical. As though there’s nothing we can do to improve the state of things. Broader, more global optimism targets that creeping cynicism. No matter the topic, the village seeks hope and actionable information. Looking for that requires a level of optimism and ownership. Simply put, we think the belief that we can make the world better is critical to actually making the world better.
No one is right all the time.
Being wrong is a universal experience. Everyone, everyone, everyone makes mistakes. Everyone has been wrong. To err is human, we say, the defining characteristic of humanity. But we frequently don’t allow for it—in others and in ourselves. @ifollowher aims to acknowledge mistakes, and help one another grow in the face of being wrong. Everyone is allowed and encouraged to be wrong, learn, grow, and change our minds. It can feel bad to be wrong and that feeling is normal.
Data is useful.
Not to sell. Selling user data is creepy and part of what makes the internet unpleasant and unsafe. But data as a source of information about what is good and helpful. In order to build a new village, we will need all the power we can get, including information as power. Being attentive to data on audience, social media use, trends, and receiving feedback, will make the village stronger and more helpful. Data can be useful to all of our audience.
Emotional safety in the village is relevant.
Whether or not you believe there is some high-minded theoretical reason to allow online platforms to devolve into hellscapes of racist or misogynistic drivel, it is an allowance. Our largest online platforms all made a choice to prioritize a private idea of free speech to be more important than the emotional safety of the user. We make a different choice.
Only pie is pie.
Justice, peace of mind, financial resources, support, love, etc. are not pie. These most valuable resources are not finite where more for one means less for another.
Be kind.
Sometimes it’s hard, but try.