CRONES ARE WISE. DANGEROUS. GOOD TROUBLEMAKERS.

I have a confession.

For the past three years, I've been almost exclusively reading (okay...obsessively reading) romance novels.

Judge away.

After spending my days writing about women's leadership, challenging broken systems, building the LOUDER GIRL community, and bringing Ignited Leadership into the world, my brain craves something different before bed.

Give me a love story.
Give me hope.
Give me the happy ending.

Because let's be honest...

Trying to change the world is exhausting.

LOUDER GIRL exists because too many women have been told to be quiet, stay small, put everyone else first, and mistake self-sacrifice for leadership.

That's heavy work.

Sometimes a girl just needs a fictional boyfriend.

Why Women Love Romance

Turns out, I'm not alone.

Romance is the fastest-growing genre in publishing.

Women buy more than 80% of romance novels because they offer something many of us are hungry for:

• Hope 
• Joy 
• Connection 
• Healing 
• Agency 
• Pleasure 
• Emotional safety 

Sound familiar?

Those are the very things we're building inside the LOUDER GIRL community.

Maybe women aren't just buying love stories.

Maybe we're searching for stories where women get to be the center of their own lives.

And Then...There's the Problem

Photo: Romance heroine

Here's where romance loses me.

The average heroine?

• Twenty-something. 
• Gorgeous. 
• Tiny waist. 
• Gravity-defying breasts. 
• Usually discovering herself. 
• Falling in love for the first time. 

The hero?

Older.
Successful.
Emotionally unavailable.
Broad shoulders.
Large hands.
A lock of hair falling over his forehead.

You know the guy.

If I read one more story where a 23-year-old has the most mind-blowing sexual experience of her life with Mr. Grumpy Billionaire, I may throw my Kindle across the room.

Where are the hot flashes?

The laugh lines?

The dry shampoo because we haven't washed our hair in four days?

The menopause belly?

The women rebuilding after divorce?

The empty nesters.

The women reinventing themselves at 58.

The women who finally know who the hell they are.

Where are our stories?

Readers Are Aging. Heroines Aren't.

Here's the irony.

Nearly 60% of romance readers are between 44 and 74 years old.

Yet the average heroine is still in her twenties.

Sound familiar?

Because it isn't just romance.

It's our culture.

Older women disappear from magazine covers.
Movies.
Leadership.
Advertising.
Power.

Photo: Help! Wrinkle Cream Stat

Apparently, we're expected to spend the second half of our lives buying wrinkle cream instead of having adventures.

No thank you.

Meet Stella Fosse

Photo: Stella Fosse

Three years ago, I found Stella Fosse on LinkedIn.

Immediately, I thought:

Now there's a LOUDER GIRL.

After leaving a successful biotech career at 62, Stella published her first novel at 68.

Most people would've called that retirement.

Stella called it a beginning.

Since then, she’s written six novels, erotica, and nonfiction books, and teaches women over fifty to write the stories they've been told they're too old to tell. 

Stella's fiction features women who are sexy.

Complicated.

Funny.

Brilliant.

Messy.

Powerful.

Alive.

Exactly the kinds of women I want to read about.

Creating Good Trouble

But Stella didn't stop with writing books.

She noticed something.

There wasn't one place where women over fifty could discover one another's work.

So instead of complaining...

She built it.

Welcome to Crone Hub.

A hand-curated collection of books, podcasts, organizations, influencers, films, blogs, websites, and resources created by and for women in the second half of life.

No algorithms.

No paid placements.

Just women lifting up other women.

Imagine that.

You can search everything from:

• Reinvention 
• Sexuality 
• Women in Power 
• Humor 
• Career 
• Aging 
• Travel 
• Body Image 
• LGBTQ+ 
• Mental Health 
• Feminism 
• Caregiving 

...and dozens more.

It's not just a directory.

It's proof that we are here.

Why This Matters

Crone Hub isn't really about romance novels.  Just like this blog post isn’t.

It's about visibility.

It's about refusing to disappear.

It's about women saying:

"Our stories matter."

That's Good Trouble.

Because every time a woman of a certain age writes a novel...

Starts a business...

Creates art...

Runs for office...

Launches a nonprofit...

Or simply refuses to become invisible...

She expands what's possible for every woman coming behind her.

She becomes evidence.

She tells a 35-year-old woman,

"Your life doesn't end at menopause. In many ways, it begins."

The Most Dangerous Women

Photo: Three Generations of Troublesome Women (Kelly, Dr. Z, Monita, Molly)

The most dangerous women aren't necessarily the loudest.

They're the women who have stopped asking permission.

The women who know themselves.

Who tell the truth.

Who create instead of conform.

Who lift other women as they rise.

Who understand that power isn't about getting bigger than someone else.

It's about making more room at the table.

That's what Stella Fosse is doing.

That's what Crone Hub is doing.

That's what LOUDER GIRL is doing.

And that's exactly what Ignited Leadership is about.

Because when women of a certain age refuse to disappear, we don't just change our own stories.

We give the next generation permission to imagine an entirely different future.

Join the FREE LOUDER GIRL Community of Good Troublemakers

A place where women:

• Cause Good Trouble
• Get support
• Tell their stories, share their truths

When You Join, You'll Receive:

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