Let me first say I am a huge Reese Witherspoon fan. I don’t get fan girl-y very often but Reese is a true Hollywood stand out in my opinion. If you are unfamiliar with her awesomeness just read this.
So when I first heard she sold her media company, Hello Sunshine, for nearly a billion dollars my reaction was “Hell, yeah! Way to show them that a woman is the ultimate Hollywood baller, Reese!”
But of course, everything is a controversy these days, so in came the naysayers. She sold the company to two men who are backed by Blackstone and she’s getting a lot of flack for it. She did, after all, launch it because women weren’t being taken seriously and honored in the right ways in Hollywood. And she crushed it.
As the Editor-in-chief of a woman’s website aimed at women over 40, Hello Sunshine’s stories speak directly to our audience. We are all trying to figure out the next chapter at this age. Whether your kids are grown and leaving the house, you are divorced, or you are still single, it’s a point in our lives where we start to think about what’s next and we usually think a lot differently about life than when we were young. It’s also a point where society seems to start dismissing us, and I’d like to think my generation isn’t going to stand for that.
Hello Sunshine is giving voices and attention to women at this stage of their life and showing them as vibrant, complex and capable forces. For this, I am grateful.
Does it concern me at all that a couple of dudes that are in bed with Blackstone, a company that in my mind personifies “The man”? Yes, it definitely does. And I’ll keep an eye out to see if the stories the company tells change, or if there are rumors that the atmosphere at the company is changing.
But ladies, we need to support each other. The only other high profile self-made woman that pops into my mind with that kind of wealth is Oprah Winfrey (who I also have mad respect for by the way). We need more women at the top of the financial stratosphere. I certainly enjoy watching the way women spend their money versus their male counterparts (looking at you with a judgmental stink eye Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates and Elon Musk).
Reese herself has already stated that selling the company will actually allow her to tell more female-led stories and hire more female filmmakers and I believe her. Reese has proven sharp and successful at everything she has ever done, so I’m just out here cheering her on.
