Note to Herself

The world feels like a lot right now. So how do you stay informed without losing your peace?

In this episode of Note to Herself, we’re having an honest conversation about news overload, outrage, and what it looks like to protect your peace in real time. It’s about figuring out how to stay aware, empathetic, and grounded—without becoming overwhelmed, anxious, or emotionally drained.

We talk about the tension so many of us feel right now:

👉 wanting to care, but feeling helpless

👉 wanting to stay informed, but feeling overloaded

👉 wanti...

Healing doesn’t always feel peaceful. In this episode of Note to Herself, we talk about emotional healing, trauma, church hurt, self-abandonment, boundaries, and what it really takes to reconnect with yourself.

Sometimes healing looks like grief, accountability, discomfort, nervous system regulation, and finally telling yourself the truth.

Listener Note / Trigger Warning:

This episode includes conversation around healing and grief, self-abandonment, nervous system regulation, emotional maturity, family wounds, toxic relationships, religious trauma, boundaries and self-trust, sexual trauma, and abusive relationships.

Please take care of yourself while listening.

In...

Nobody warns you that some of your hardest breakups won’t be romantic, they’ll be friendships.

In this episode of Note to Herself, Kia and Krystel get honest about friendship breakups; the kind that don’t come with drama or betrayal, just distance, growth, and change.

Losing friends as you get older doesn’t always look like a fight. It could look like unanswered calls that go longer and longer in between returns. Or outgrowing each other. Or realizing you no longer fit in spaces you once called home.

In this conversation, we explo...

Being a good mother, daughter, friend, or partner shouldn’t require disappearing from who you are and what you want from life.

In Episode 4 of the Note to Herself podcast, Kia and Krystel get honest about something many women experience but rarely name: self-abandonment.

This conversation explores what it looks like to slowly lose yourself in caregiving, expectations, and the pressure to be everything for everyone— and how to begin reclaiming who you are without guilt.

From motherhood and co-parenting to relationships, routines, and even the small ways we ignore our own preferences, this...

Is modern dating actually broken — or are we approaching it the wrong way?

In Episode 3 of the Note to Herself podcast, Kia and Krystel unpack the chaos of modern dating, the viral coffee date debate, and the role that attachment styles, social media narratives, and unrealistic expectations play in how people date today.

In this episode, we discuss:

✨Modern dating culture and the pressure created by social media

✨The viral coffee date debate and whether first dates need to be expensive

✨The difference between standards and preferences in dating

✨Em...

Everyone online is talking about the “soft life.”

But most of what we see is the aesthetic version—robes, candles, matcha lattes, and curated calm.

In this episode of Note to Herself, Kia and Krystel talk about what a real soft life actually looks like in your 40s—and why it often costs more than people think.

In our world, softness isn’t effortless, it’s intentional.

We talk about what it takes to create a life that feels peaceful and sustainable in midlife, including setting boundaries, protecting your nervous system, prioritizing...

Welcome to the very first episode of Note to Herself — the podcast for women 40+ who are done editing themselves.

In Episode 1, “She’s In Her Grown Woman Bag,” hosts Kia and Krystel dive into identity, authenticity, midlife growth, and what it really means to stop over-explaining yourself.

We’re talking about:

✨ The difference between finding yourself vs. truly knowing yourself

✨ Why women in their 40s feel more settled

✨ The exhaustion of constantly explaining and proving yourself

✨ Getting married young and growing into different people

✨ Success, visibility, and perf...

The Note to Herself Podcast is for women 40+ who are done editing themselves.

Hosted by Kia McCallister-Young and Krystel Spell — two longtime friends in their forties — this podcast is an honest, unfiltered space for women navigating identity, relationships, and the reclamation of personal power.

Each episode explores three things: who you are now, what you’re ready to release, and what you’re stepping into next.

We’ve lived full lives, and we’re no longer interested in shrinking to make others comfortable.

If you’ve been feeling this shift, you’re in the right...