The Best *Everything* of 2024

12 women share their 2024 discoveries, including gay jeans, Irish swimming, and a major parenting realization. Plus, 20% off Big Salad subscriptions!

Hi! How’s your week going? Welcome to Big Salad’s final issue of 2024!

This year has been wonderful. We LOVED meeting readers at Big Salad events in Chicago and Seattle. We adored interviewing funny women like Bess Kalb and Roxane Gay, seeing friends’ cold-weather uniforms, and celebrating Big Salad’s first birthday. Plus, it’s always a treat to peek into homes, like Abbey’s garden makeover and Anne’s green kitchen.

Finally, I felt thrilled — and relieved — to have a place to talk about new life stages, like building a Hinge profile, going on first dates, having sex post-divorce, and falling for this guy. It’s been a wild year, full of ups and downs, and hearing your thoughts, stories and insights has been a joy and tonic.

We’re deeply grateful for this wonderful community. To show our thanks, we’re offering 20% off annual subscriptions, today and tomorrow. (That’s $4/month.) You’ll receive a full year of Big Salad, plus access to all the archives. You can easily gift a subscription to a friend or relative, as well — and schedule the email to hit their inbox on Christmas morning or the first night of Hanukkah :)

To toast this year, we asked 12 friends to share their 2024 discoveries, including books, movies, and life hacks. (And we’d love to hear yours!) Here goes…

Parenting hack: For those times when everyone is bored (in a restaurant, on an airplane, at the doctor's office), we often play this drawing game. You fold paper (or a napkin) into thirds, and each person takes a turn creating the head, torso or feet of a person or animal. Sometimes we'll have multiple drawings going around a big table. My 15-year-old and six-year-old both enjoy it, which is a parenting triumph. My older son is also into photography. I love the teenage years — no one talks enough about how fun it is to watch your kid’s talents emerge. Alex won an award for this photo, above!

— Abbey Nova, design historian

Beauty essential: Blush is the only makeup I wear consistently, besides filling in my brows. I love Rhode pocket blushes and Westman Atelier’s stick in Petal.

Pop-culture trend: This was the year of the crash out (dramatic public meltdown). I have to genuflect before my sister Jennifer Lopez, who did it bigger and better than anyone. Lopez made an album and movie and documentary about finding The One... only to get divorced (powerful, chic) within the same calendar year. And then to top it all off with a Bridgerton-themed birthday?

— Hunter Harris, podcaster and writer of

Hung Up

Weekly ritual: I create a different playlist every week — it’s a nice way to remember what was happening and how you were feeling. According to the “wrapped” feature, I listened to more than 108,000 minutes of music in 2024!

Hobby: I like revisiting favorite paintings at the Met — in that way, I feel like they are ‘mine.’ Right now, I am obsessed with Vuillard.

— Gisela Gueiros, art educator and writer of

Gisela’s Hottest Takes

Travel destination: For the past 10 summers, I’ve vacationed in Positano, Italy. But this July, I decided to go to Anchorage, Alaska. I traded in beaches for blue glaciers, sweaty tees for cozy sweatshirts, linguine alle vongole for cod chowder, and loud crowds for pods of orcas. Doing the familiar is nice — Italy, I still love you! — but doing something different can be mindblowingly cool.

— Somsack Sikhounmuong, creative director at Alex Mill

Kate in a Big Salad hat; her two kittens

Poem: When the poem 'I Take My Toddler Out to Dinner' by Maria Ferguson popped up on Instagram, I read it with my hand over my heart. Having taken four of my own toddlers to restaurants over the past decade, I loved the storytelling and its touchable lines. Absolutely delicious.

Kittens: I lost my companion and queen of my heart, Kitty, in November. It was devastating. I wasn’t planning to get another cat anytime soon, but when my sister-in-law told me she was getting an adoptable kitten from a nearby farm, I decided to tag along. I ended up bringing home this brother and sister. I’ll be honest, the first night was hard. I missed my cat. But their playful tromping and sweet purrs have brought a lightness to the house, and I’ve fallen in love. RIP to my plants.

— Kate Baer, poet

eBay finds: Pony-hair Dansko clogs — somehow completely impractical and practical at the same time. This year, I also leaned into my love of vintage Levi’s and bought a few pairs in different sizes, so I’ll always have something that will fit comfortably.

—

Erika Veurink

, brand strategist and writer of

Long Live

Book: Colm Tóibín’s Long Island came out this year, which was the excuse I needed to read the first in that series, Brooklyn (published over a decade ago to great acclaim) about a young woman who leaves Ireland for New York in the 1950s. Tóibín’s spare, beautiful writing is a balm — I listened to both novels, one after the other, on audio during afternoon walks, and it was one of my favorite moments of the year.

Parenting tip: I learned a new mantra this year: W.A.I.T. which stands for Why Am I Talking? My daughters are 20 and 22, an exciting time, but also a little stressful. As they begin to sketch out road maps for their futures, I find myself tempted to say: This is how I did it or This is how it was done back then or You have to learn to do it this way. I’m their mother, so it’s impossible to completely shut off the advice valve, but I’m doing my best to exercise restraint, instead of adding to any stress and frustration. Why Am I Talking. WAIT. Try it out with a young adult near you.

—

Jenny Rosenstrach

, author of many cookbooks and

Dinner: A Love Story

Shows: The play Oh, Mary! by Cole Escola and the movie Challengers.

Clothing staple: THESE GAY JEANS!

Sports: All the eyes on the WNBA, and one day all of the WNBA with their eyes on me.

— Peyton Dix, podcaster, writer and social media strategist

Travel destination: I went to a conference in Ireland this past summer, and my dad tagged along. We took a train from Dublin to the Forty Foot — which I had seen on Bad Sisters — and it was even more beautiful in person. The water was cold, but I think the salt content (I’m a marine biologist now, ha!) made me feel buoyant. As they say in Ireland, it was GRAND.

Romance novel: My favorite romance is usually whichever one I have most recently read. This week, I read Catherine Walsh’s Holiday Romance, and it was perfection. The first quarter of it takes place in the airport (tension! emotions! arms brushing!) and then it becomes a festive travelogue through Paris, London and Dublin. Great for getting into the holiday spirit.

— Grace Farris, doctor, illustrator, and writer of

Weekend Mom

Weeknight recipe: I think I’m in the right place to declare that I eat salad year round! A hearty salad is especially important during the winter months, to save ourselves from the stodge of winter eating. This cabbage, apple and tofu combo is a savior.

Cooking tool: I’ve found my forever kitchen shears in Material Kitchen’s The Good Shears. The gold ones are not only stylish and reliable, but they come apart to cut through box tape and packaging. A cooking essential.

—

Hetty Lui McKinnon

, writer of cookbooks and

To Vegetables, With Love

Headline: I can’t stop thinking about NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmor being stuck in space. I’ve tried to imagine how it would feel to plan to leave the planet for eight days — and end up staying away for more than six months. I will read anything they write upon returning.

Hair care: Last week, I cut off eight inches of hair to give myself a proverbial fresh start to 2025. I’m not usually one to wax poetic about viral beauty brands, but I allowed myself to get acquainted with Crown Affair earlier this year, and something about their Cleansing Scrub really does it for me. It makes my tiny bathroom smell like a spa, and the salt granules against my scalp make me think something is actually happening. I rotate it with my regular shampoo, and every time I use it my hair feels extra clean and bouncy.

—

Emily Sundberg

of

Feed Me

Interiors trend: Dopamine decor! It’s the exact opposite of millennial gray — you take a bunch of bright colors and somehow make them all work together. At this point, I know everything there is to know about the color wheel.

— Ochuko Akpovbovbo of

as seen on

What about you? What were your favorite discoveries of 2024?

1. Ashley C. Ford on How Poverty Makes It Hard to Know What You Like. Plus, egg-y breakfasts, Korean rom-coms, and a sexy fragrance.

2. What It Was Like to Have Sex for the First Time Post-Divorce. 10 frequently asked questions from Big Salad readers, including the big one.

3. Caroline Chambers Reveals a Dinner Conversation Starter. The cookbook author on (truly) kid-friendly recipes and the perfect cool girl starter pant.

1. The Beautiful Jewelry Studio That’s Stolen My Heart. They redesigned my engagement ring — the “before” and “after” rings are very different.

2. Erika Veurink’s Apartment Is Full of Thrifted Treasures. Think: a striped bedroom and Midwest vibes.

3. 10 Things I've Learned Writing This Column. Saying a very fond farewell to Jenny!

4. The Trick to Enjoying Big Family Gatherings. I’ve done this for 20 years.

5. What Parenting Stage Are You In Right Now? Jannelle talks about getting through the day — and grocery store — with a toddler and baby.

6. What Are You Grateful For, Large or Small? The other day, I was watching The Sopranos…

(Jenny Rosenstrach’s family dinner photo by Chelsea Cavanaugh. Hetty McKinnon photo by Shirley Cai. Note: If you buy something through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission or have a sponsored relationship with the brand, at no cost to you. We recommend only products we genuinely like. Thank you so much.)

Thank you so, so much for a wonderful year, and hope you have a great break! Our next issue will be January 3rd. Lots of love, and take gentle care. xoxo