This is how we start. Not perfectly, but honestly.

Dear Woman,

There was a time I thought being a woman meant being perfect. Being quiet. Being small. But now I know better. I’m Felipa, and I created this space to explore what womanhood really means outside of the rules, the pressure, and the lies.

Not just any woman. The "right" kind. The "perfect" kind. The kind that smiles without wrinkling, that speaks without offending, that loves without asking for too much. The kind that knows how to dress, how to walk, how to hold back tears, how to hold a household together, how to want less, how to do more.

I’ve read the books. I’ve tried the routines. I’ve followed the rules, bent myself into the right shapes, and stayed quiet when I wanted to scream. I’ve consumed more advice than I care to admit all in an effort to become something that would finally feel like "enough."

And still, something was always missing.

The truth is, the perfect woman doesn't exist, and if she does, she's not real. You don't need to chase a fantasy to be worthy. You can be a real woman by being respectful, independent, and also soft. It's not about perfection, it's about authenticity.

This is the question that led me to create Dear Woman.

Not as an answer book. Not as a rulebook. But as a living, breathing space where I could share the truth as I’m learning it. And hopefully, offer a kind of companionship for the women out there who feel like they’re carrying this journey alone.

I'm here to talk about what it really means to be a woman. Not in a filtered, picture-perfect, Instagrammable way, but in a way that is human, messy, layered, and whole. I'm here to explain how to be a woman on your own terms. To help you step into your power, grow your confidence, and learn how to love yourself deeply and fully.

Because being a woman isn't about performing. It's about becoming. It's about unlearning, remembering, and rising.

We are constantly told who to be.

Be softer. Be sexier. Be more independent. Be more domestic. Be confident but humble. Be loud, but not too loud. Be grateful. Be effortless. Be perfect.

It’s exhausting.

I started this newsletter because I don’t want to perform womanhood anymore. I want to live it fully, honestly, without shame.

And I want that for you too.

I want this to be a space where we can unpack the weight of expectations and still hold onto the beauty of being women. Where we can talk about softness without weakness, strength without apology, vulnerability without judgment.

I want to write to you about:

* the little lies we’ve been told about femininity

* the pressure to be perfect and how it ruins real joy

* the art of softness as a form of rebellion

* beauty that isn’t skin-deep

* rituals that reconnect us to our power

* the messiness of healing and the grace in starting over

* sex, silence, ambition, self-worth, sisterhood

* confidence, identity, and the journey back to self-love

Because being a woman is not about fitting a mold or reaching some unreachable standard. It’s about choosing to respect yourself and other women. It’s about supporting your gender, not tearing it down in competition, but lifting it up in compassion. Being a woman means recognizing your own worth and the worth of other women, even when the world tries to devalue it.

It’s in the way we celebrate each other’s wins, and sit together in the losses. In the way we speak to ourselves in the mirror, in the way we listen to each other’s stories. True womanhood is not just something you are, it’s something you practice: through empathy, through courage, through grace.

Not from a place of having it all figured out. But from a place of being in it with you.

This newsletter is a letter to every woman who is tired of becoming someone she’s not, and ready to come home to who she is.

It’s a weekly reminder that you’re not behind. You’re not broken. You’re not too late. You’re becoming, and that’s more than enough.

We live in a world that profits from our self-doubt. That wants us confused, quiet, constantly comparing. But there is something deeply rebellious about a woman who decides to know herself. Who decides to tell the truth. Who decides to stop waiting to feel worthy.

So this is me telling mine. Not because I have all the answers, but because I’ve lived through enough of the questions to know that real womanhood isn’t perfect. It’s honest, raw, beautiful, and ever-changing.

I hope my stories can be a mirror for your own. I hope the words you read here feel like a soft place to land. I hope you feel seen. I hope you walk away with more love for yourself than you had when you arrived.

Thank you for being here.

This is only the beginning.

With love,

Felipa