Girls' Night In (GNI) is not your typical wellness brand. Prioritizing self-care and mental health, GNI's first venture is a weekly newsletter filled with ideas, articles to read, and community love for your night in. It's by far my favorite newsletter each week, and often provides some great reading material and self-care tips for when I'm feeling blue. The GNI team also has an amazing blog with phone wallpapers and interviews with amazing boss ladies like Ann Shoket, former EIC of Seventeen and author of The Big Life (a really good book!), and Jenni Romolini, Chief Content Officer of Shondaland. I reached out to Alisha Ramos, the founder of this fantastic venture, who just recently went full time with GNI, for a chat with Pink Things. We talked about what GNI is passionate about, the new product launch this summer, and how you can get involved!
Sarah Sickles for Pink Things: Tell me about yourself! Who are you and what’s your background?
Alisha Ramos, Founder of Girls' Night In: I’ve been working in tech for over five years. I worked at Vox Media, a media and tech company that owns a ton of amazing brands like Eater and Vox.com, as a Design Director. So I love the intersection of technology, design, and editorial. As for education, I graduated from Harvard where I studied Sociology and History.
Pink Things: What’s Girls' Night In?
Alisha Ramos: Girls’ Night In is a lifestyle brand and community that celebrates staying in, taking care of yourself, and connecting meaningfully with your girlfriends.
Pink Things: Why did you start it? What inspired the project?
Alisha Ramos: I started GNI shortly after the inauguration. I found that my friends, who are mostly women, were particularly stressed and overwhelmed at the time, and we were seeking comfort and care by unplugging and instead creating community with one another. I wanted to celebrate that spirit and create something fun and caring that would help take away that stress.
Pink Things: So tell me about your initial product launch, the weekly newsletter. Why a newsletter? How has it grown?
Alisha Ramos: A newsletter was the easiest and fastest thing for me to put together and launch. I have a tech and editorial background, so logistically it was easier for me. What started off as an experiment to see if women would even find the general concept interesting has grown into a large community of thousands of women who want to celebrate having a girls’ night in instead of going out to party.
Pink Things: Talk to me a little bit about the contents of each newsletter. Why do you choose what you choose? How did you come to select the specific sections that each newsletter contains?
Alisha Ramos: I choose things based on whether or not I truly would enjoy doing that activity during a night in. Everything is geared towards helping the reader have a fun, playful, and engaging experience. We have a mix of fluff-pieces on topics like avocado toast, and balance that out with educational and more serious pieces, like why social interaction is important for one’s mental and physical wellbeing.
There are generally 4 sections of the newsletter - 10 things to do during a night in, smart reads, a featured interview with a boss lady, and community highlights and announcements. Those are all strategically chosen to help create a balance between fun, intellect, and celebrating and appreciating our community.
Pink Things: Can you tell me what Girls' Night In values?
Alisha Ramos: We value a holistic sense of wellness that blends physical, mental, and social aspects of wellness. We value deepening the relationship you have with yourself and the ones you have with your friends. We value taking time out to recharge, relax, and treat yourself.
Pink Things: How many community members do you have so far?
Alisha Ramos: We have 7,000 and counting! Our growth rate grows every week.
Pink Things: Who reads Girls' Night In?
Alisha Ramos: 99% of our readers are women between the age of 21-34, the majority are on the latter end of that spectrum. Readers come from cities around the world — we have most of the states represented, but we also have international readers in the UK and Australia.
Pink Things: If you had an ideal scenario or environment for everyone to read your newsletter in, what would it be?
Alisha Ramos: Either on their train commute to work on Friday morning to help them get pumped about the weekend/when the clock will hit 5pm, or after dinner on Friday when you’re snuggled up on the couch with a glass of rosé.
Pink Things: Talk to me about your blog! You interview amazing women and have features on specific products and things like that. Wallpapers for your phone! How is that developing and what are your hopes for it?
Alisha Ramos: Thank you! The blog has been a work in progress. We have a list of dozens of dream boss women we’d like to interview. We’re still honing what our editorial strategy is exactly and how it supports the broader GNI mission. One of our top priorities is to hire staff and contributors to make the editorial division a bit more vibrant and engaging.
Pink Things: Also! You have a digital book club and run giveaways! Any comments on this?
Alisha Ramos: It’s been fun! We’re currently collecting applications for book club hosts around the world, because we’ve been getting lots of questions about when we’ll have city-based meet ups.
Pink Things: Can you tell me anything about your next project coming this summer? What can we expect?
Alisha Ramos: We’ll be focused on building products that fit within our mission to make wellness accessible and fun for the busy millennial woman through community.
Pink Things: What are your ultimate goals for Girls' Night In?
Alisha Ramos: Creating a vibrant and engaged community that uplifts and supports women, and a brand that has lasting power.
Pink Things: What’s been the most rewarding thing so far? The most challenging?
Alisha Ramos: The most rewarding has been receiving all of the emails, tweets, and Instagram messages each week after the newsletter goes out. Everyone has been so supportive and I love seeing how much the newsletter is entertaining or helping women take care!
Pink Things: I ask everyone I interview about Pink. How do you see Pink fitting in with Girls' Night In? Do you identify with Pink? What are your personal thoughts on the color?
Alisha Ramos: Pink is a powerful color that I think is getting a lot of attention now because women are feeling more empowered. I personally love pink - it’s one of my favorite colors!
Pink Things: If you had advice for a young person looking to start their own venture, what would it be?
Alisha Ramos: Create some high level goals, create a plan, collect some savings, and just do it. It will feel scary and uncomfortable, but that’s how you grow and make it work.
Pink Things: How can Pink Things readers participate?
Alisha Ramos: You can subscribe to our newsletter at http://girlsnightin.co! Also follow us on Instagram: http://instagram.com/girlsnightinclub
Pink Things: What’s next for Alisha? For Girls' Night In?
Alisha Ramos: Stay tuuuuned. :)