It’s funny how you can be an ardent feminist.
One who’s marched in Washington DC for women’s health rights.
One who volunteered for Planned Parenthood for a year and a half.
One who has stood up to every person who’s said something sexist ever since you could talk in full sentences.

It’s funny how you can be that person...and still feel insulted when someone says you write like a woman.

That’s what someone said to me. “I could tell a woman wrote this.”

You could read that statement in a number of ways. It could sound like disappointment, or criticism. It could sound like “I figured out your secret identity.”

Instead, I felt like a failure. 

I tried to force myself to think of this as a compliment. It’s not bad to sound like a woman, Jennifer. ← That’s how upset I was with myself—I used my full name. 

(Only I, and then my mother, are allowed to use my full name by the way. Don’t get any funny ideas.)

But the truth is, being a woman doesn’t automatically vaccinate you against sexism...so you have to fight it off like a cold or flu when it slips in under your immunity.

Besides, what does writing like a woman even mean? Were there doilies and tampons* hiding in my copy? Of course not.

(*A shout-out here to the women who don’t menstruate. I see you and love you.)

My favorite copywriters are 90% of the female or nonbinary gender. 

I know when I compare their work and my work, to the work of many male copywriters, I can feel a difference.

Especially if I catch even a whiff of “bro” energy. FTR there are female copywriters who also write bro, and I don’t like them either. 

I guess if there’s anything I discriminate against, it’s bro. Not men, just bro. Bro copy makes me feel just as uneasy as being on a bad first date. Can I get a helicopter to take me to safety? 

When I remembered this, I didn’t just feel better that I write like a woman. I felt proud.

After all, my “womanly” writing helped do this in 2020:

• More than 6x’d a client’s launch into a multi-million dollar launch

• Doubled another client’s previous 6-figure launch

• Got another client on the leaderboard for Amy Porterfield’s DCA launch

Sure sounds like writing like a woman makes ca$h.

Never apologize for not writing like a man. 
If your ICA (ideal client avatar) likes it and purchases from it...that’s all that counts.

This blog post was partially inspired by Ruth Bader Ginsberg. Thanks for everything you did for women and for our country, RBG.