Young women would prefer a world without internet
Plus: 🎥 Jennifer Lawrence 💉 Ozempic pregnancies 🌅 'miracle mornings'
It’s official: women would rather have their youth without the internet.
Over half (52%) of 16-21 year old women said they’d rather be young in a world without the internet, in a recent UK survey. Scroll down to read more.
It adds to the growing evidence that women’s online lives are in crisis. In March, we reported that women were leaving social media and were more likely than men to say misogynistic content has affected their mental health.
We don’t have all the answers, but we haven’t given up on the internet: our research has shown that positive content can improve young girls’ self-image. We’ll keep sharing women’s stories, views and role models to make our corner of the internet a place worth spending time.
In this edition of Take The Lead, the newsletter from The Female Lead, we’re also sharing our extract from Naga Munchetty’s new book about women’s health being overlooked; exploring how Jennifer Lawrence’s new film goes “full feral”; and revealing how a ‘miracle morning’ routine could change your life (if you can make time for it 😴).
Enjoy, share if you like it, and subscribe if you haven’t so that you never miss an instalment.
The Female Lead Team
We’re talking about…
👑 For the second year in a row, Fortune has named General Motors chief executive Mary Barra as its most powerful business woman of 2025. Barra was the first woman to lead one of the US’s big car companies, and regularly speaks to Trump about tariffs.
👩💻 A US experiment showed 3,000 people statements from economists attributed to male and female names. It found the opinions of female economists were 20% more influential than the male ones in terms of impacting public opinion.
🏃🏾♀️Black girls love sport more than any other group, yet they’re much less likely than other groups to take part in sport - suggesting they are being “failed by the sporting setup in the UK” according to Women in Sport.
💉 There may be a so-called ‘Ozempic baby boom’ – a rapidly growing number of women reporting unplanned pregnancies while taking the drug. There are safety concerns about taking the drug while pregnant though, and more research is needed.
Inspire me…
“The truth is, extreme anxiety and extreme depression is isolating, no matter where you are. You feel like an alien.”
Jennifer Lawrence speaking candidly about her experience of the postpartum period, which has helped to driver her work on her new film Die, My Love.
Young women’s dream world doesn’t include the internet
More than half of young women would rather live in a world without the internet, but the same is not true of men, new research has found - lending weight to the idea that women’s online lives are at breaking point.
A UK study found 52% of women aged 16-21 said they would rather be young in a world without the internet, compared to 44% of young men.
Half (50%) of all the young people surveyed by the British Standards Institution said they would also support a “digital curfew” that would restrict their access to some apps and sites after 10pm. And almost 7 in 10 (68%) feel worse about themselves after spending time on social media.
While there were some similar online behaviours between young men and women, the differences were telling: 43% of women said they had set up a fake or “decoy” account online, compared to 36% of men, and women were less likely to have shared their location with someone who they had never met.
Toolbox: ‘Miracle morning’ routines
From Alla Ouvarova, co-founder of Two Chicks and Future Female Entrepreneur
🤔 Why: Starting the day on your own terms gives you control. If you can manage it, you could have a clearer mind - and even greater productivity. When I follow this routine consistently, I'm far more productive and happy versus days when I immediately rush into obligations.
🔧 How:
The Miracle Morning is a book by Hal Elrod, using a method called S.A.V.E.R.S. — six practices that can transform your day in one hour.
Ideally spend about 10 minutes on each activity, but the key is consistency, not perfection: you can reduce the amount to as little as one minute per section if you're pressed for time.
Silence: Centre yourself with some quiet time:meditation, mindfulness, or just focusing on breathing
Affirmations: Read some positive affirmations and goals you've written out loud
Visualisation: Close your eyes and imagine what you want in life. I’ve made a physical ‘dream mood board’ with images of what I want to be, to have and to do, which helps me
Exercise: Any physical movement to energise your body—yoga, stretching, or even jumping jacks
Reading: Learn from self-development books, biographies, or inspiring articles
Scribing: Journal about gratitude, daily intentions, or progress
I have been doing it for almost four years and can’t live without it. Of course, this could be hard to fit into your life: I go to bed super early and I’m not productive in the evenings anyway, so this works for me.
As a minimum, I do journaling and meditation, so if you want to try, you can tailor it to your own needs.
Final thought
Read our extract from the BBC’s Naga Munchetty’s new book here.
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