That's Not Very Ladylike

Tracey Willingham
  • 5.0 (4)
  • Self-Improvement

That’s Not Very Ladylike is the podcast for every woman who was told to be polite, stay calm, or stop being so dramatic, meanwhile her hormones, boundaries, and sanity were quietly falling apart. Hosted by Tracey Willingham, licensed social worker and the voice behind That Hormone Girl™, each episode starts with one rule: Ladies don’t…and then they do it anyway. Together, we unpack the unspoken expectations, the emotional labor, the generational BS, and the hormone chaos modern women are carrying and we get honest about what it actually takes to feel like yourself again. If you’re ready to question the rules, trust your body, and stop shrinking to make everyone else comfortable, you’re in the right place.

  1. 4d ago

    Ladies Don't Get Loud. They Just Use Their Inside Voice for Everything.

    This week I’m taking you to the woods in County Sligo, where I stood with nine other women and screamed. My first scream was a polite, lady’s scream. By the last round, what came out of me was one loud, clear “no.” My whole life, my voice has been called too much, too loud, too weird, and somewhere along the way I learned to swallow the sound. We get into why this rule was never really about being quiet. It’s about who gets to decide how much space your voice takes up. We get into how the rule has never been enforced equally. We get into how the same culture that took your volume away now expects you to be heard at the school meeting, with the insurance company, and in the exam room, just quietly enough that you don’t bother anyone. And we get into the hardest part: catching yourself right before you make your voice smaller, and finding one place this week to be loud on purpose. Music from #Uppbeat https://uppbeat.io/t/mountaineer/break-it-downLicense code: 1S4TI94HJFOHIGSH If you are interested in That Hormone Girl information, visit my everything page: https://www.thathormonegirl.com/thg-hq

  2. Oct 1

    Ladies Don't Say They're Unhappy. They Just Blame It on Their Hormones.

    This week I'm getting into that moment when you're genuinely unhappy about something with a name, a job, a friendship, the way your marriage works, and instead of saying it, you say, I think it's just my hormones. Then you wait. For the labs, for your next cycle, for the next protocol. And another year goes by without looking at your actual life, and you call that taking care of yourself. We get into the difference between treating your body and postponing your life, and why perimenopause doesn't put those questions in you, it's the season they finally show up. We get into the wandering womb, hysteria, and the rest cure, and why every time women have been dissatisfied with the conditions of their lives, the answer has arrived as a medical one. We get into how the mood changes in perimenopause are real, documented, and treatable, which is exactly why it's your hormones is so hard to argue with when it's only part of the truth. And we get into the hardest part, two lists that ask what would still bother you if you slept eight hours and felt healthy, and what would still be true if your life stayed the same but your body felt like yours again, and then taking both answers seriously at the same time. Music from #Uppbeat https://uppbeat.io/t/mountaineer/break-it-downLicense code: 1S4TI94HJFOHIGSH If you are interested in That Hormone Girl information, visit my everything page: https://www.thathormonegirl.com/thg-hq

  3. Sep 24

    Ladies Don't Say No to Caregiving. They Just Add the In-Laws to the List.

    This week I'm getting into that moment when your partner's mother falls, and there's a pause in the room where everybody looks around, and the looking lands on you. You already have a list: your kids, maybe your own parents, a job, a household, everybody's schedule living rent free in your head. You never actually say yes. You just quietly start knowing her medications, and you call that being family. We get into why you're just better at it isn't a compliment, it's a job offer with no salary and no end date. We get into how a married woman was historically absorbed into his household, and how today's long-term care system still runs on the assumption that a daughter or daughter-in-law will do it for free. We get into what it costs when that load lands in the perimenopause and menopause years, hitting her career, her retirement, and her health all at once. And we get into the hardest part, writing down every task for two weeks and saying one sentence out loud to your partner: these are your parents, what's your plan? Music from #Uppbeat https://uppbeat.io/t/mountaineer/break-it-downLicense code: 1S4TI94HJFOHIGSH If you are interested in That Hormone Girl information, visit my everything page: https://www.thathormonegirl.com/thg-hq

  4. Sep 17

    Ladies Don't Have Insomnia. They Just Get a Lot Done at 3AM.

    This week I'm getting into that moment at 3:07 in the morning when your eyes are open and nothing woke you up. No noise, no kid, no dog. You replay the work conversation from earlier, this time with better lines. You do the countdown math on how many hours you can still get if you fall asleep right now. And by breakfast you've turned the whole thing into a joke about being a night owl, and you call that getting a lot done. We get into why waking at 3AM is all about how we took one of the most measurable, most researched, most treatable symptoms of this transition and turned it into a productivity brag. We get into how a woman's sleep has always been treated as interruptible, how rising while it's yet night got framed as virtue, and who benefits when she quietly runs on five hours for a decade and never takes up an appointment slot.  Music from #Uppbeat https://uppbeat.io/t/mountaineer/break-it-downLicense code: 1S4TI94HJFOHIGSH If you are interested in That Hormone Girl information, visit my everything page: https://www.thathormonegirl.com/thg-hq

  5. Sep 10

    Ladies Don't Fall Apart at the Funeral. They Just Make Sure Everyone Ate.

    This week I'm getting into that moment when you get the call, and within about four minutes, before you've let yourself feel one single thing, you're already running logistics. Who's driving, who's staying where, deli tray or casserole. Then you show up and don't sit down for six hours. You refill the coffee, find the extra folding chairs, hold everyone while they sob into your shoulder, and your own face does absolutely nothing, and you call that holding it together. We get into how women were once paid, honored, and considered essential as mourners, and how that role got handed to priests and funeral directors while the unpaid labor came back to us with a casserole dish in it. We get into what deferred grief costs, especially when perimenopause already has your nervous system running in a deficit. And we get into the hardest part, putting the plate down, saying out loud in the car who you're there to say goodbye to, and letting yourself be one of the people who gets held. Music from #Uppbeat https://uppbeat.io/t/mountaineer/break-it-downLicense code: 1S4TI94HJFOHIGSH If you are interested in That Hormone Girl information, visit my everything page: https://www.thathormonegirl.com/thg-hq

  6. Sep 3

    Ladies Don't Have a Tone. They Just Say It Nicer Until It Disappears.

    This week I'm getting into that moment when you rewrite the same two sentences five times. You add an exclamation point so it doesn't read as cold. And by the time you finally hit send, the thing you actually wanted is gone from the message entirely, and you call that being professional. We get into why softening isn't politeness, it's a skill you were trained in early, because a woman who says the thing plainly doesn't get an answer, she gets told she has a tone. We get into how the tone accusation was never actually about volume. We get into what it costs to be the one who is easy to work with and never once heard. And we get into the hardest part, saying it one time, plainly, and letting the discomfort sit with the room instead of taking it back and rewording it into something that means nothing. Music from #Uppbeat https://uppbeat.io/t/mountaineer/break-it-downLicense code: 1S4TI94HJFOHIGSH If you are interested in That Hormone Girl information, visit my everything page: https://www.thathormonegirl.com/thg-hq

  7. Aug 27

    Ladies Don't Grieve the Body They Had. They Just Stop Getting In the Pictures.

    This week I'm getting into that moment when someone says let's get a picture and you hear yourself say oh, I'll take it. You just become the one holding the camera, and one day you notice there's a whole season of your life you are not in a single frame of. We get into why that is grief and not vanity. We get into how the ideal body has been rewritten every decade for a century, and why a standard that keeps moving sells more than a fixed one ever could. We get into how perimenopause lands right in the middle of it, since declining estrogen changes where your body stores fat and disrupted sleep shifts appetite regulation and stress hormones. And we get into the hardest part, being in the picture before you like the picture.  Music from #Uppbeathttps://uppbeat.io/t/mountaineer/break-it-downLicense code: 1S4TI94HJFOHIGSH If you are interested in That Hormone Girl information, visit my everything page: https://www.thathormonegirl.com/thg-hq

  8. Aug 20

    Ladies Don't Ask Is This It? They Just Reorganize the Pantry Again.

    This week I'm getting into that 9PM moment when everything is technically fine and a voice in your chest goes, wait, is this it? And instead of saying it out loud, you go alphabetize the spice rack. We get into why that question isn't ingratitude, it's a curve. Researchers have tracked a U shaped happiness curve across a hundred countries that bottoms out in your mid forties and climbs back up after. We get into Betty Friedan naming the problem that has no name in 1963, and the women who answered it by redecorating and moving, which is to say reorganizing the pantry sixty years ago. We get into how perimenopause turns up the volume, since the hormone shift lands right at the bottom of that U. And we get into the hardest part, naming the thing instead of organizing something. I feel restless, and I think I want something for myself. Music from #Uppbeat https://uppbeat.io/t/mountaineer/break-it-downLicense code: 1S4TI94HJFOHIGSH If you are interested in That Hormone Girl information, visit my everything page: https://www.thathormonegirl.com/thg-hq

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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
4 Ratings

About

That’s Not Very Ladylike is the podcast for every woman who was told to be polite, stay calm, or stop being so dramatic, meanwhile her hormones, boundaries, and sanity were quietly falling apart. Hosted by Tracey Willingham, licensed social worker and the voice behind That Hormone Girl™, each episode starts with one rule: Ladies don’t…and then they do it anyway. Together, we unpack the unspoken expectations, the emotional labor, the generational BS, and the hormone chaos modern women are carrying and we get honest about what it actually takes to feel like yourself again. If you’re ready to question the rules, trust your body, and stop shrinking to make everyone else comfortable, you’re in the right place.

Information

  • Creator
    Tracey Willingham
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    47
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2025 Tracey Willingham, That’s Not Very Ladylike Podcast. All Rights Reserved.
  • Show Website
    That's Not Very Ladylike