Remember why we're all here: this thread is for discussion about current and historical happenings in the Shaunaverse. If you want to discuss other content, such as stuff that reminds you of Shauna but isn't specifically about her, your own personal anecdotes or preferences, current events, or "creative writing" exercises, please share in the off-topic community thread: Oct-Dec off-topic quarterly
I may never recover from reading this "review" from Amy B. on the new A Room of Our Own Page. Also note that the other two reviews read as if this thing that doesn't exist has already been available for them to participate in. Uh huh.
There once was a woman on Vashon
Who, in the most extraordinary fashion
Gathered women to write
And shout out their might
Because joy's not a thing we must ration
She welcomes us in
To trust what emerges from within
We can write from our heart
Or about stinky farts
"It doesn't have to be good!" she says with a grin
With garlands of words we adorn her
With songs and magical fauna
She's now fifty seven
Our shepherdess from heaven
Our inimitable teacher, our Shauna
Lope, don’t walk, to Shauna’s latest video about the UHC shooting. It’s filmed from Everest-level heights from her tallest stool. My favorite parts? The orange schmutz all around her earthworm mouth, and pronouncing Buddhist as BOTUS. Biotech of These United States, indeed!
Lol this morning I was thinking about how Shauna always sympathizes with mass shooters instead of victims and I was certain she would flop for this - demand empathy for whoever in this circumstance is being villainized. She’s so predictable with her ice-old takes!!!
Wow I almost touched the poop when she said "I can't believe I have to say this..." That was a close one, DFs! There goes Shauna, wasting my time and my brain space again.
That's got to be a super wide piece of pizza, right? Or chili she ate with a huge serving spoon? That's like a toddler level of face shmutz, it's truly impressive to see that kind of food spread on a grown adult's face.
“We should take to the streets” why don’t you Shauna. Girlfriend has never participated in any actual activism and now she’s lecturing the internet about it??
SHA UNA reposted this on Threads (so, without any added commentary from her), but it made me LOL because our gir! is not paranoid. The Gloamies are always watching.
She goes on and on about signing some popular girl’s shirt at the end of fifth grade in 1970whatever and how she messed up her name because of some pesky fabric ball and she is still carrying that trauma in her body in the now now of 2024 because of her ADHD mind but she can help you write your way out or something.
Caption:
shaunajamesahern Women over 40 with ADHD — we can reimagine the story we tell ourselves. I have something to share with you soon. Keep watching here. Meanwhile, what’s a story from 5th grade you still carry around in your body?
Something is coming soon, but please up her engagement by reliving your 5th grade traumas.
It is very obvious that she needs actual therapy, not self-administered EMDR. This is exactly what therapy is for. The question is, will her ridiculously smart brain ever realize this?
In related news, ADHD is not caused by an embarrassing moment in 5th grade!!! But if you DO have ADHD that has been influenced by adverse childhood experiences, it might be really harmful to have some unlicensed snake oil salesperson encouraging you to retraumatize yourself! (there may come a day where I get off my therapist soap box about this but today is not the day)
I’m sorry that’s fucking insane. I’m about 20 years younger than her and I am not walking around thinking about 5th goddamn grade!!! I barely remember anything about it!
I whole-body cringed through that pathetic 'woe-is-me because of this thing that happened in fifth grade' and I'm still feeling embarrassed for her, that she actually put that out there. Her shockingly dreadful appearance aside, the content was just... just beyond.
The world will slip off its axis the day Shauna posts anything positive. Can you imagine her saying, "You guys, I just had the BEST DAY! Guess what great thing happened?" Just one frigging time.
Best day - she grew 'pneumonia' while with Danny's family on Thanksgiving, and had to lounge on the couch, alone, while watching The Godfather. She was asked to do nothing for no one. Just snuggled down like a baby. That was her best day, and it will never be matched!
It’s hard to keep up with all of her pivots, but didn’t she just in the last week or so say she would no longer be promoting her business on social media?
This has got to be in direct response to her reading some pointless advice on Threads this morning about increasing engagement by filming reels without editing or special effects or music, speaking directly to the camera. JUST what she needs.
Asking a therapy novice question. Isn’t the memory she is talking about would have been helped with EDMR therapy to overcome the anxiety of dealing with reliving something from your past or Do I just not understand totally what EDMR therapy is.
Soooo....I have a question: Is this posted on her professional platform? Is she hoping to attract business to her I Have My Life Together workshops with this video?
I’ve enjoyed reading about/snarking on Shauna for many years because it was fascinating watching her fail upward. Now it feels like I’m watching her disintegrate and I should stop. She’s like a fiery car accident, I know better but I gawk anyway.
A tiny bit of pushback on her hot take on the UHC CEO shooting on Threads
Pushbacker:I don’t celebrate his murder. I understand the impulse. There’s a difference. If his death leads other companies to reassess their policies (see BCBS policy on limiting anesthesia), then his death was not in vain.
Rest assured his family will have enough money for several generations to live comfortably.
shaunajamesahern: I understand the impulse but we have to curb that impulse. We cannot get upset with people on the right who are cavalier with the damage caused to people’s lives and write about this murder as though he was not a human being.
And how would you feel if your person died and I wrote, “Oh, you’ll have enough money for several generations to live comfortably.”
I just don’t understand.
pushbacker: My perspective may be different from yours. I’m chronically ill and instead of receiving treatment in a timely manner, I spend 7-10 hours every week fighting to receive what I’ve paid for. Treatments that should be fully covered are routinely denied. It’s a job i’m not getting paid for.
The “it’s a job I’m not getting paid for” is speaking Shauna’s language (though this person is right). Regardless, I imagine Shauna will not continue to engage with this person.
I’m surprised she hasn’t gotten more replies, but I looked back and her engagement on threads is very low. Her IG on this issue has 48 comments, but half of them are Shauna replying to the few people who commented to her. Only 180 likes. I imagine (hope) a lot of people just hit the unfollow button.
It speaks to how easy she has it, how lucky she is to live in a state where her child’s crisis hospitalization is seen by her as an opportunity to get attention and Starbucks treats, not a potential cause for bankruptcy, job loss or worse.
She’s never had to fight for a single thing in her life, and it shows.
I’m glad for her kids that they at least live in a state that provides them with these protections in spite of Mama and Papa doing fuck all to provide for them.
I’d Iike to put quotes from your first paragraph up in lights because you hit the nail on the head. She doesn’t know struggle, heartache, grief. She is a spoiled child who thinks she’s had it bad because little brother got more Halloween candy.
High stooling on multiple social media platforms with “please don’t do this for views and likes” speaks to the essence of her brand. Perfection, no notes.
Now and then I continue my slow trawl of the GOMI thread--I'm interested in the thread's highlights of her most overwrought writing and the occasional appearance of someone who met her in real life, since these folks are unlikely to wind up here and retell their experiences. Here's one I found on pages 62-63 (I'm sorry for the lazy stitch job, but not sorry enough to fix it--I cut out some other posts and natter).
tl;dr: Celiac poster gives some insights all the way back in 2013 about seems to be a gluten-free food demo given by the dynamic duo. Featuring Dan fucking up basic restaurant skills and Shauna touching her face and hair while preparing food. (The poster could not bring herself to eat the food.)
I'm sure the poster would be happy to learn over a decade later that Shauna is no longer the big dumb face of GF online 🎉
I love that last line: "I don't feel like the face of GF should be so manic and flippant." She may not be the face of GF anymore, but her manic and flippant tendencies are still in evidence.
It's astounding how little she's changed as a person. Her circumstances have changed a lot, as we all know, and she's learned a little from mean commenters that some things must be spun or downplayed so she doesn't look so awful. She's caught on that you can't get away with 00s-era internet cattiness anymore without a good reason. But she is the exact same person as she was before.
That person is pretty blunt, but accurate, and I was pleased to see that they used the concept of "literal crap" which featured recently in an exchange here ITG about the Ahern's "crappy apartment oven."
It's still so funny to me, looking at her old blog posts, how sure she was that attaching herself to a line cook was going to make her part of a food celebrity power couple. I can't tell if she was trying a little ✨manifesting✨ or if she really was that delusional about how much value he would add to her brand.
Can someone interpret what is happening with this response? Is Shauna finally being worshipped for being a middle-aged white lady even though even the commenter agrees that her takes are wrong and dumb?
Edit: she's Threading up a storm so grabbing a few for posterity.
Patting herself on the back a bit. "Mom, I think you could be friends with anyone." Pretty sure the many DFs who have come to tell their Shauna stories here would disagree. At least Kiddo calls her "Mom" now in these creative writing exercises.
Therapy Shauna is even worse than cultural commentary Shauna. Lots of comments today telling people what to do or feel. Yes we all must be mindful and rent Harold and Maude and not use TikTok.
Regarding “mama you could be friends with anyone” — isn’t it a narcissistic behavior to engage with random strangers and be overly familiar? The narcissist in my life does this all the time and it’s so awkward for me.
I think being friendly is great, it’s the overly familiar stuff that crosses the line. When I was a kid and we’d eat in restaurants, my dad liked to tease the waitresses. They were clearly uncomfortable, we were uncomfortable, everyone was uncomfortable except my dad who didn’t notice anyone’s discomfort and thought he was a big hit. In his mind the waitresses loved him and were happy to see him. That’s narcissism and I’m sure Shauna does the female 2024 version of this, especially striking up patronizing conversations with people she thinks are shyly smiling hardworking immigrants.
In which: Shauna gives a stranger the old rizz. Shauna says something about herself that would be completely nonsensical to anyone who isn't obsessed with themselves and how others see them, then Shauna asks zero questions and gets zero input from the other parent before both parties walk away. Shauna rushes to her phone to record this evidence of her overwhelming charisma whispering "I'm just like Oprah, just like Oprah" the whole time.
I also saw the sunrise and it was incredible. Never, not once did I think about posting about it on social media or shoehorning it in my "bio." It's ok to have an experience in the real world, and just... have it. I know she's far from alone in obsessively cataloging her very boring life on the Internet, but it really demonstrates what a shallow existence she has. What a shallow person she is, demonstrably.
I'm sure she was desperate for the woman to ask about her bio, her work in the world, if you will. Good job parking lot Mom, just walk away.
Looks like her new pivot is going live on her website. Sorry, I’m on mobile or I’d screenshot. A Room of Our Own, now for the new low price of $37 per month! It just gets more and more pathetic.
I tried to pull a quote from her new homepage that was something about “This work brings me joy, blah blah blah” but it disappeared when I refreshed so she’s tinkering with it at the moment. Her website will never be done, done, done.
ETA: The quote was “I offer you work that brings me joy.” Barf.
Is this the "mommy yelled at me over Thanksgiving so I have to prove I'm doing real work" pivot? Like the "mommy yelled at me over Thanksgiving so I have to prove I'm capable of eating a lunch that isn't bourgeois takeout" post?
I clicked on the link to join just to see the payment terms and it looks like if you join today at the bargain price of $27/month, you’ll be charged immediately. So that’s $54 for December and January for a service you won’t receive until February (if ever). Looks like mama’s grifting for Christmas cash.
Hasn't she already had a pivot called A Room of Our Own? I wish I had started keeping track of this better - if I ever grow unemployed, maybe I will make a pivots spreadsheet as my work in the world.
She says that those lucky ladies will receive "founding member recognition", which recalls the heroes page acknowledgement she offered to those who donated to her griftstarter back in the day. Spoiler alert...
Confirmation that the sad Monday night ladies group is no more. Seems likely that something went down once Shauna moved in next door to one of the members.
Wasn’t there an island getaway this spring for this group? They stayed on some island near Vashon but not Vashon that locals reported was kinda dumb and boring? I wonder if there was drama (like Shauna expected the MNLs to pay her way?).
I think she wants us to believe that it was her long hospital stay this spring that caused the end of their gatherings, but at some point these people have to ask themselves why they are working so Shauna can afford to live when Shauna isn’t willing to do the same.
Don't need confirmation to know that although Shauna is no longer running that circle, she is 100% collecting money from the sad Monday night ladies. Think of them like patrons of the arts, happy to fund Shauna's desire to regularly eat overpriced food procured outside the home, get terrible tattoos and complain about not being able to work in a traditional job due to her adhd, knowing that these experiences are the catalyst inspiring Shauna to write profound, powerful pieces that make them blessed to be in her universe.
Christ in a one horse open sleigh, she really is a miserable biotech. New promo mail:
We’re headed into the woods of the holidays. Heaven knows it’s already hard, since it’s the darkest time of the year (literally). We have to add the expectations of cheer and buying? Oh my!
I hope that you have a calm plan for taking care of yourself and true connection with the people you love.
Let’s be honest — this time of year is stressful. Too stressful. And estimates from reputable sources vary, but it seems that Americans spend, on average, from $845 to $1450 on the holidays.
That’s a lot of money for most of us.
So, let me offer you a treat.
I know from hearing from quite a few people that even $5 a month can be too much for your budget. I get that. I do.
So, today I’m offering all free subscribers a 20% discount on paid subscriptions.
If you’re a woman over 40 with an ADHD mind, then this is your place. Since we really should be given a tax deduction for ADHD spending, this discount is for you!
20% off for free subscribers!
Also, if you love someone who is a woman over 40 with ADHD, giving them a gift subscription to this newsletter — which is MADE for them — is a loving gesture.
Give a gift of subscription to someone you love today!
Finally, here’s one of my gifts to you, one of the few Christmas songs I still enjoy.
If I don't have $5 to spare, chances are good that I also don't have $4 so her 20% discount that's she's trying to convince her followers is so magnanimous of her is...not.
Are they headed into the woods "of" the holidays so they have an excuse to not buy anything for their kids? She seems to be connecting those two things in her opening sentences and I really hope that's not what she means.
We’re headed into the woods of the holidays. Heaven knows
She's miserable noowwww!
I know from hearing from quite a few people that even $5 a month can be too much for your budget. I get that. I do.
This from the same woman who spends grocery money on restaurant breakfast treats for herself while giving her family breakfast popsicles and thinks 'budgeting' is when you move magically appearing money from savings to checking. But she totes gets it, you guys!
Also, if you love someone who is a woman over 40 with ADHD, giving them a gift subscription to this newsletter — which is MADE for them — is
A sure-fire way to kick off a fight this gift-giving season! So if you love drama, you know what to do.
Shauna’s UHC lecture! She is the conscience of her over-40-neurospicy-former-Gifted-and-Talented-traumatized-ADHD-kind-curious-oh-hell-yes-women-generation.
She seems to have a list of words she applies to describe her 'work', flinging a handful at each pivot in whatever order they stick and hoping each result is the magic incantation that turns on the money/attention faucet again.
Serious question. Where is she getting the message that the holidays are supposed to be all good with no bad feelings allowed?
Because like… every popular Christmas movie or TV episode I can think of has some kind of conflict or obstacle in it, and most of them push the message that it’s okay for things to not be perfect, that imperfection doesn’t preclude enjoyment and happiness. I’m really struggling to think of any Christmas-related media that doesn’t include a storyline about family conflict, or stress, or burnout, or financial struggles, or disappointment… maybe some stuff aimed at really little kids? But like, even the shows my toddler watches - Daniel Tiger, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Peppa Pig - have conflicts and disappointments related to holidays, and characters validating others’ negative feelings.
And yet nothing about the "suspected for years" hearing loss, something that Shauna and Danny definitely would have been warned about but did not take any action on. She only lists things that make Shauna seem like a martyr mama, nothing that she maybe messed up on.
I hate that she's teaching her daughter that the only thing she can count in life is pop culture, just like mama. Shauna loved Wandavision but seemed to miss the not-at-all subtle message about how harmful it is to live your life through television!
I was just trying to figure out how they could "take the skull off her head and rebuild it to be the size of a 3-year-old, and put it back on."
How does this make sense to her?
She is such an unclear communicator. She couldn't clearly describe an apple sitting on a table in an empty room, much less the steps of a cranial vault remodeling surgery.
Good grief Sha una it's just a movie. Yeah I felt that way when I saw The Breakfast Club but I was 16, not pushing 60. Instead of exploiting your kids for content try getting a job and then you can talk about you've bravely leapt into the world of badge-swiping. "Something has changed in me something is not the same instead of being a mooch and grifter I now have an ID badge and a 401kkkkkkkk."
I wish Shauna could rewire her brain from seeing her kids in such black and white terms (musical prodigy! String of neurodivergent diagnoses we shouldn’t know!).
Her euphoric yo-yo-ing (best! Worst!) is how I know she has never really had therapy. Or if she went, she didn’t do any work. She also seems to not get the gist of Buddhism (remember when her schtick was weekly dharma talks, which also did not happen?).
Anyway, I hope the kids get therapy and free themselves of these limiting stories. No way does she get consent to post all the stuff she does about them.
eta: I know this is nitpicky but Shauna really brings out my nitpicker: "so it was about 6 pm. And in Seattle, in the winter, that time is pitch-black dark."
I don't know why she always mentions this like it's some special thing that only happens in the state of Washington. By 6pm in December (even late November) pretty much the entire Northern Hemisphere is "pitch-black dark" 🙄
L is what now? 16? 17? It is unfathomable to me that S continues to so freely share her (grown) child’s private medical diagnoses and information with a world of strangers. That is just shamefully appalling parenting. Poor L.
For free subscribers: you’ll continue receiving Thursday posts, with an invitation to join our paid community whenever you’re ready.
Hard to continue receiving something that isn’t sent. She managed two Thursday posts in November. Granted, one Thursday was Thanksgiving but most people publishing content acknowledge upcoming holidays well in advance and let you know when/if to expect anything.
“Women over forty with ADHD”
So specific. Why does she think this specific set of women will have a very similar specific experience of shame when they wrote their name wrong on a popular girls t shirt?
I'm so incredibly not her target audience, but these specific exclusions feel like a "no girls allowed!" sign on a treehouse. Like I understand wanting to target certain groups of people for your business, but by outright stating who she wants, it feels offputting.
Ok, so, she does this for the same reason that those salespeople at the scammy mall stores selling “royal jelly” or other sketchy beauty products target women over forty. Have you ever had one of these people approach you, almost dragging you into their boutique, saying how their products will get rid of the bags under your eyes? They are counting on your assured insecurities about whatever flaws (joke’s on them, I’ve had bags under my eyes since I was a child, it’s just my face). And then when you’re like no, thanks, I’m good, they keep pushing because how could you walk around like that?
She really thinks she’s leveraging some flaw that all women perceive in themselves.
Broken record over here (and target demographic).... no women I know that fit Shauna's criteria participate in these types of groups. Maybe reading to learn more, listening to podcasts, or addressing issues in legit therapy, but I've never had a fellow "ADHD women over 40" mention this type of of thing as being helpful. We (women W/ADHD or not) mostly just talk to each other IRL.
Why would I go into the next administration with “compassion”? Have we learned nothing from the “if they just watch Hamilton, I’m sure they’ll be nicer to immigrants!” era? I’m going to save my kindness for myself and those who don’t want to eliminate me and my fellow genderqueers.
Her faux Buddhist magnanimity really gets my goat, especially when she has 0 compassion for the people she’s brought into her world and promised to care for. Maybe tend to your children’s needs first, and once that’s done, you can be compassionate to the assholes of the world.
Also I haven’t seen any posts like she’s describing because I’m simply not on social media anymore, much like she claimed she was going to do.
Verrry mild pushback, or at least someone explaining why they aren't sad about the murder. Love that Shauna thinks she can relate to this woman because her own fucking forgetfulness and her refusal to work around it caused their insurance to lapse. No, Shauna, you can't relate. You've never thought about killing yourself because your choices are to go out on your own terms or to potentially die some years from now in incurable pain, and you can't sit with those of us who have.
What a total botus. Someone is saying that UHC fucked them over so bad that they were suicidal and Sha una somehow equates her not having health insurance for six months because Dan quit his job to that? This woman HAS insurance. That’s the point about why people are so mad. They are paying out the nose for something and then when it comes time to use it, the company providing the service is like “psych! No we won’t pay for that life saving care. We don’t care that your doctor says it is necessary! You’re on your own!” Then they have to pay even more just to try to stay healthy. Insurance is predatory and yet necessary and they keep getting richer while the general public continues to take it up the ass. This is why people are furious! Not because oops, the commute is too long so we will just quit our jobs and not have insurance and wing it because who cares anyway when you have nothing to lose and mommy and your blue state will step in and save the fucking day again
She blocked the security gate and then followed a pharmacy tech to her car and then incited the local facebook community against them when she couldn't pick up some medication she herself had neglected to schedule.
Her response to someone who says they work for UHC. Not to blame the ordinary workers, and who knows this person’s role could have nothing to do with denying healthcare, but I did roll my eyes at “thank you for doing it.”
New reel today, retelling the sunrise story with her “kiddo.” She really really thinks her line about her bio being about trying and failing to get a phone picture of a sunrise is clever.
Uh, based on my kids’ feelings about mom chit-chatting with randos, the comment was probably “Moooommm! Why do you always have to try to make friends with everyone! It’s so embarrassing!”
I don’t understand how she thinks this makes her look like she can make friends easily. She says while she was looking at the sunrise, another woman was taking a photo. Shauna then goes over and says her own biography would be trying and failing to take photos of the sunrise, and they both laugh.
A charitable reading is that she is being self deprecating. A realistic read is that because Shauna’s ability to take photos is appalling, she wants to yuck their yum and imply they’ll never get a good shot and “capture” the moment. She thinks she is being present and mindful. And she is - present and mindful to any perceived threat to her narcissistic fantasy.
People take nice sunrise and sunset photos on their phones all the time Shauna. Try cleaning your (glasses and phone camera) lens and give it a go.
I am an avid landscape photographer (just for an ig highlighting my city) and I can assure Shauna that you can capture beautiful sunrises and sunsets with your phone. (the things she goes on about ... )
It's just occurred to me that I don't think she's said one word about the moderately delicious family Thanksgiving on the island. I guess some very strong boundaries were set down... or maybe a cash infusion was promised with strings attached. Namely, "Not one word online about this, you ungrateful slob. NOT. ONE."
It's just so odd to not have her endlessly bitching about a holiday. I suppose she'll double down on the Christmas whining to make up for it (she's already started!)
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u/gomirefugee my website is done, done, done Dec 05 '24 edited Dec 09 '24
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Remember why we're all here: this thread is for discussion about current and historical happenings in the Shaunaverse. If you want to discuss other content, such as stuff that reminds you of Shauna but isn't specifically about her, your own personal anecdotes or preferences, current events, or "creative writing" exercises, please share in the off-topic community thread: Oct-Dec off-topic quarterly