"All the Cool Girls Get Fired", Including Me; Book Review & Reflection

In October of 2025, I was fired. I was surprised, embarrassed, and ashamed. I did not know what to do and I couldn’t silence the self doubt in the back of my head. Did I not work hard enough? What am I going to tell my friends? How am I going to pay my bills?

The emotional turmoil of being let go, combined with the physical threats of losing my primary source of income sent me spiraling. I started ruminating on the choices I had made that led to my firing and replayed every possible outcome over and over again, Will I ever work again?

That same month, Kristina O’Neil and Laura Brown released their book, All the Cool Girls Get Fired: How to Let Go of Being Let Go and Come Back on Top . O’Neil currently serves as the head of Sotheby’s Media and editor in chief of Sotheby’s Magazine and Brown is an Australian fashion journalist. In the autobiographical collection of stories, they detail their experiences after being dismissed from WSJ and InStyle respectively to provide an “unfiltered, comprehensive, GPS guide to rebuilding your career on your terms”.

When the title appeared on the “Audiobooks for You” list on my Spotify, I took it as one of those cosmic signs and thought, this was written for me. I am a woman with ambitious dreams for my future and I needed a reality check. I was coasting at a job that I incorrectly regarded as the “safe option” and when I was fired, my confidence and sense of self were called into question. My natural reaction was to retreat, masterfully avoiding the dreaded, “So, what’s next?” and “What have you been working on?”. However, If two prolific journalists, entrepreneurs, and media moguls can come back from being shown the door, then so can I.

I pressed play and instantly felt represented. The book humanizes the aspect of “loss” in “job loss” and welcomes grief as a necessary step in the rebuilding process. They skillfully blend humor and a matter-of-fact voice to ultimately bring levity to a situation that to many, especially in today’s job market, would otherwise be quite bleak.

The national unemployment rate is 4.4%, for women, 4.2% and for Black people, 7.5%, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. The authors, both white women, briefly mention the racial disparity in unemployment for Black women but do not provide actionable tactics to overcome this in the job search. Their take what resonates and leave what doesn’t approach makes it easy for Black women readers to adjust as needed, a skill we have mastered for centuries. It is after all, a handbook not a bible.

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The book details how the shame around firing disproportionately affects women and works to arm them with tools to navigate the psychological and physical burdens of not working. I was reminded of those feelings, the loneliness and destabilization. It’s a disorienting experience once you realize that routines you created and stuck to months or even years would cease to exist. To ground yourself, O’Neil and Brown remind their readers to “own your firing”. Accept the reality of the situation without internalizing any self-destructive thoughts and use your time to evaluate before embarking on a new path.

Part of owning your firing is recognizing that you are not your job and your value as a human is not related to a title or a salary. This is a mantra that I am currently learning everyday. Living in the past is not going to propel me into the career that I imagined for myself, but taking stock of my experiences and all the strengths that come with them could launch me into my next endeavor. One key theme of the book is acceptance, and readers are encouraged to embrace their situation for what it is, an opportunity. Redirection, while sometimes unexpected, can be essential. Making peace with it is a necessary step to welcome new opportunities. I am challenging myself to take pleasure in the pauses, reflect and re-strategize.

All the Cool Girls Get Fired is an incredibly timely and sincere read for any woman navigating a job loss or whose 2026 rebrand includes a new career. Straightshooters, Brown and O’Neil are equally playful and pragmatic with their advice and strike a signature balance between sympathy and strategy.

In this period of resurgence I have learned that it’s ok to not know what the next step is, in fact, there is power in taking advantage of my newfound freedom by opening myself up for all potential futures. The biggest takeaway that I have added to my toolbelt is that I am allowed to shape my next step on my own terms.