Hi Reader,

Are you a fan of the tv show, The Office? It's a family fave here in the Davies house. And as such, there are certain moments that we reference and laugh about even now, years after we binge watched the whole series.

One such moment is a dialogue between Andy and Nellie. Andy (the manager) has just returned from being away, to find that Nellie has kind of usurped him and taken over his job. And so he attempts, politely, to get it, and his office, back:

Here's the best part: She doesn't even look up. She simply refuses to even entertain the concept.

Just...no.

And it reminds me of the concept that "no" is a complete sentence. Full stop.

Dr. Jennifer Hintzsche didn't exactly say "no" like fictional Nellie Bertram. But she thought it. And it was a hard "NO."

After being told she had "unexplained infertility" and then handed a packet full of information on how to obtain the loan she'd need to pay for fertility treatments, she refused to accept it.

She didn't collapse into it. She didn't let it define her. It was simply, "no."

She didn't take that loan. She didn't go back to the fertility doctor. Instead, she went home and built PherDal, the first and only FDA-cleared, sterile, at-home insemination kit—a product that’s now helping families conceive safely, affordably, and on their own terms.

Her story may have started out with fertility, but it's just as much about refusing to accept the story someone else assigns you. It’s about fighting for the one you want.

So many of the women I talk to—on the podcast, in my DMs, in my actual real-life friendships—are tired of being handed stories that don’t fit.

Stories about their bodies.
Their careers.
Their families.
Their value.
Their aging.
Their timing.
Their dreams.

And we’re expected to smile politely, nod, and accept it as “just how it is.”

But sometimes the most powerful thing you can do is exactly what Nellie does in that scene:
Keep your eyes on your own work.
Refuse to take on someone else’s version of your life.
And say, with whatever volume you can muster that day:
​No. [full stop]

Jennifer did that.
And because she did, other women now have choices they didn’t before.

That’s the ripple effect of one woman refusing a story.

So if there’s an area of your life where you’ve been handed a “no” that doesn’t feel true—
a door that someone else closed,
a narrative that doesn’t fit,
a limitation you didn’t ask for—
maybe this is your reminder that “no” isn’t only something you receive.
​It’s something you get to give.

🎧 Listen to Jen’s episode of Roar here.​

XO,

Danielle

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