Celebrating the women who remind us of our worth when the world forgets.

(This post was originally published on February 6th 2020 and updated on January 21st 2026)

There's something quietly radical about women choosing to celebrate each other. Not as a consolation for being single, not as a tongue-in-cheek alternative to "real" Valentine's Day, but as a deliberate, joyful acknowledgment that female friendship is one of the most sustaining forces in our lives. Galentine's Day - February 13th, the day before Valentine's - has become shorthand for this, though the practice itself is as old as women gathering around kitchen tables, swapping stories, and reminding each other of their worth when the world forgets.

What started as a Parks and Recreation joke has evolved into something more meaningful. Because beneath the brunches and the group photos, Galentine's Day touches on something women have always known but rarely see reflected back with the weight it deserves: that the relationships we build with other women shape us, sustain us, and often save us in ways romantic love never could.

This isn't about diminishing romantic relationships. It's about expanding the conversation to include what's always been there - the friendships that outlast breakups, the women who show up when everything falls apart, the quiet loyalty that doesn't ask for grand gestures but offers them anyway.

Why Female Friendship Deserves Celebration

We live in a culture that has historically positioned women as competitors, for male attention, professional advancement, and for some imagined scarcity of success or desirability. The narrative has always been that women are threats to each other, that female friendship is secondary - nice to have, but not essential. Romantic love, we are told, is the relationship that matters most, the one worth celebrating, prioritising, building a life around.

But ask most women what's carried them through difficult seasons, and it's not romance. It's the friend who answered the phone at 2 a.m. The one who said, "You're not crazy, you're right to feel this way." The one who reminded you of who you were when you'd forgotten. The one who celebrated your wins without envy and mourned your losses without judgment.

These relationships are foundational. They're the ones where you can be unfiltered, where you don't have to perform or minimize yourself to fit someone else's comfort level. They're where you practice honesty, vulnerability, and the kind of love that doesn't ask you to shrink.

Galentine's Day matters because it creates space - cultural, emotional, practical - to honor that. To say out loud: these women are essential to my life, and I'm going to treat them that way.

What It Actually Looks Like

Galentine's Day doesn't require grand production. It's not about matching pajamas or elaborate gift exchanges, though those things are fine if they feel genuine. It's about intention, about carving out time in a world that constantly demands more of us, and choosing to spend it with the women who make us feel seen.

For some, that's a long lunch where the conversation moves from laughter to tears and back again without apology. For others, it's a quiet evening in someone's living room, wine poured into mismatched glasses, the kind of ease that only comes from years of knowing each other. It might be a weekend away, a group chat that turns into an impromptu gathering, or simply making space to say: I see what you're navigating, and I'm here.

The specifics matter less than the underlying gesture: we are choosing each other. Not out of obligation or routine, but because these relationships are worth protecting, nurturing and celebrating.

The Unspoken Work Women Do For Each Other

There's an emotional labor women perform for each other that often goes unacknowledged. We hold each other's stories. We remember the details - the difficult boss, the aging parent, the dream deferred. We check in without being asked. We offer perspective when someone's drowning in their own head. We celebrate the small victories that no one else notices and witness the private griefs that never make it to social media.

This isn't performative support. It's the quiet, consistent work of showing up. Of being the person who says, "I believe you" when the rest of the world questions. Of reflecting back someone's strength when they can only see their limitations. Of loving each other through the messy, unglamorous seasons that don't photograph well but define a life.

Galentine's Day is a chance to acknowledge that work. To say: what you do for me matters. The way you show up matters. You matter.

On Jealousy, Competition, and Learning to Root For Each Other

Not all female friendships are easy, and it's worth being honest about that. We've all been taught to compare ourselves - our bodies, our achievements, our relationships - and sometimes that poison seeps into friendships. Jealousy surfaces. Competition creeps in. We find ourselves measuring rather than celebrating.

But the most enduring female friendships are the ones where women have done the work to unlearn that. Where someone else's success doesn't feel like a threat to your own. Where you can genuinely celebrate a friend's promotion, engagement, or creative breakthrough without the bitter aftertaste of "why not me?"

This doesn't happen automatically. It requires self-awareness, humility, and the willingness to examine your own insecurities rather than projecting them onto someone else. But when you get there - when you reach the point where you can root for the women around you without reservation - it changes everything. It frees you both.

Galentine's Day can be a practice ground for that. A reminder that there's enough success, love, and recognition to go around. That another woman's light doesn't dim your own.

The Conversations That Matter

The best Galentine's celebrations aren't about the setting - they're about the conversations that happen within it. The ones where someone admits they're struggling and doesn't immediately follow it with "but I'm fine, really." The ones where you talk honestly about what you want from your lives, from your careers, from your relationships, without softening it or making it palatable.

These are the conversations where real intimacy lives. When someone says something you've been thinking but haven't dared voice, and suddenly you feel less alone. When you're reminded that ambition and doubt can coexist, that confidence is something you practice rather than possess, that every woman you admire has moments of feeling completely lost.

There's a particular kind of freedom in being fully known by another woman. In not having to translate your experience or justify your feelings. In being met with understanding rather than explanation. Galentine's Day creates space for that - for the conversations that don't fit into a coffee break, that need time and attention and the safety of being among women who get it.

What We Celebrate

When we celebrate Galentine's Day, we're celebrating more than friendship. We're celebrating:

Resilience. The way women hold each other up through grief, heartbreak, career setbacks, and all the small indignities that accumulate over a lifetime of navigating a world not built for us.

Honesty. The permission to be imperfect, to admit when we're struggling, to ask for help without shame.

Joy. The particular kind of laughter that happens when women feel safe enough to be ridiculous, irreverent, fully themselves.

Witness. The quiet gift of being seen - not just the curated version we present to the world, but the whole, complicated truth of who we are.

Endurance. The friendships that have lasted through moves, marriages, divorces, children, career changes, and all the ways lives diverge and reconverge over decades. These are not small things. They deserve recognition.

Making It Yours

If you're planning to mark Galentine's Day this year, let it be whatever feels true to you and the women you're celebrating. Maybe it's an afternoon tea at a place with good light and better pastries. Maybe it's a group walk where the conversation flows easier when you're moving. Maybe it's cooking together in someone's kitchen, the kind of meal that takes hours and fills the house with warmth. Maybe it's exchanging handwritten notes about what each friendship has meant, something tangible to keep.

Or maybe it's simpler still - a text thread that says, "I'm grateful for you," and means it. A phone call that stretches longer than expected because there's so much to say. A promise to show up, again and again, in the ways that matter.

The gesture doesn't have to be elaborate. It just has to be intentional.

The Lasting Thing

Here's what Galentine's Day reminds us: female friendship isn't secondary. It's not the relationship you maintain while waiting for romantic love to show up and make your life complete. It's primary, essential, irreplaceable.

The women who have walked beside you through the difficult seasons, who have celebrated your victories without envy and held your failures without judgment - they're not supporting characters in your life story. They're co-authors. They've shaped who you've become, and you've shaped them in return.

That deserves more than a passing acknowledgment. It deserves a day, yes. But more than that, it deserves the ongoing practice of choosing each other, showing up for each other, and building the kind of community where women don't just survive - they flourish.

So this Galentine's Day, whether you gather or simply reach out, let it be a reminder: the women in your life are worth celebrating. Not once a year, but as a practice. Not because they're perfect, but because they're real. And because in a world that often pits women against each other, choosing to love each other fiercely is its own quiet rebellion.

Olyinka Magazine is here for the women who understand that self-care isn't frivolous - it's foundational. If these conversations resonate with you, we'd love to have you join us. [Subscribe here] to receive thoughtful reflections on confidence, lingerie, and intentional living delivered to your inbox.

With warmth,
Olyinka Magazine

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