katy ripp

Welcome to Xennial Girl – Notes from the In-Between

Hi. I’m Katy — a proud member of the most overlooked generation on the internet: the Xennials.

We’re that micro-generation born between about 1974 and 1983, which means we grew up analog, became adults digital, and somehow survived dial-up internet, AOL chat rooms, and the emotional devastation of losing a perfectly curated mix CD to a car visor.

We are not Gen X (too cynical and corded-phone cool).
We are not Millennials (too earnest and perfectly lit).
We are the in-between — the ones who remember life before smartphones but now run entire businesses from them. The ones who still have burned DVDs somewhere in a drawer and a Google Drive full of half-finished dreams.

We’ve hit midlife and realized we’re sandwiched squarely between carpooling kids and caregiving parents. Between wondering if we should start a podcast or a sourdough starter. Between perimenopause and PTO meetings. Between “what do I want to be when I grow up?” and “how soon can I retire?”

And honestly? I started Xennial Girl because I needed a place to talk about all of it — with humor, honesty, and maybe a little Hall & Oates in the background.
(Funny story: for years I thought it was Haulin’ Oats because, well, we didn’t have an app to tell us otherwise.)

This blog is part nostalgia trip, part reinvention guide, part group therapy for women who feel too young to be old and too old to care what’s trending.

We’ll talk midlife identity, money and meaning, body and balance, and the art of staying curious when you could easily just… not.
We’ll reminisce about Friday nights at Blockbuster, maybe cry about stretch marks, and definitely celebrate the kind of glow-up that has nothing to do with Botox.

So whether you’re here for the manifesting, the mix tapes, or just the mutual midlife madness, welcome.
You’re not late. You’re right on Xennial time.


This post is part of Xennial Girl — part nostalgia trip, part reinvention guide, part group therapy for women who feel too young to be old and too old to care what’s trending.

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Every Monday morning, I send one honest letter about midlife, reinvention, Storybook Hill, sobriety, slow living, and the messy process of becoming more yourself.
No productivity hacks. No manufactured urgency. No pretending certainty comes first.
Just a thoughtful place to land before the week gets loud.

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