What Comes After Girlboss? Enter the Soft Girl Era

Personal essay on burnout, ambition, energy, and choosing softer leadership in midlife

I’m entering my soft girl era. There, I’ve said it.

After a stellar year, one where I travelled more, connected more, earned more, and worked harder than ever, I admitted something to myself: I have a deep longing for something different from what the girlboss era gave me.

As a Xennial woman, an ex-corporate professional turned solo founder, and a single mum of three, grind has practically been tattooed on my forehead. Work ethic meant doing more, working longer, pushing harder, and being visibly capable at all times.

But in my bones, I know 2026 needs to be soft.

And it’s not just me. These are conversations I’m hearing across travel and hospitality from founders, operators, and female leaders who are tired of being exhausted, and quietly questioning whether outdated workplace performance models still make sense.

What the Soft Girl Era Really Means for Women at Work

Soft girl era is often described as a feminine reclamation of self, with a renewed focus on mental health, intentionality, and sustainability. It sounds like the opposite of the girlboss persona. I see it instead as an evolution, one that can happen at any stage of a career.

Girlboss was always on. The system she existed in rewarded rigid performance and demanded constant output.

Soft girl is much more than candles, skincare, and sheet facemasks. It is a reclamation of energy, a rejection of traditionally masculine leadership ideals, and a shift toward defining success on women’s own terms.

Girlboss internalised imposter syndrome. Soft girl steps back and asks why it was ever handed to her in the first place.

So how does a former girlboss answer the call to evolve? Here are three ways I’m bringing soft girl energy into my career this year and beyond.

1. Redefining Productivity Through Energy, Not Output

Girlboss productivity was built around a permanent “on” button: more hours, more meetings, more visibility, and eventually, more exhaustion.

For many women, particularly those navigating midlife hormonal shifts, this model is simply unsustainable.

Soft girl era reframes productivity as energy management as a leadership strategy. It asks: what do I actually have capacity for right now? How do I work with my natural rhythm instead of against it?

Some women explore this through cycle syncing, aligning work types with hormonal phases:

• Menstrual: reflection, goal-setting, strategic thinking

• Follicular: new projects, brainstorming, problem-solving

• Ovulatory: negotiations, events, visibility, challenging conversations

• Luteal: analysis, detail work, closing loops

  
  

For women navigating peri- or post-menopause, success often comes down to smart energy stewardship. Designing work around nervous-system care matters more than pushing through.

This isn’t a cop-out. It’s protecting cognitive energy as a business asset, and recognising that ebbs and flows can work in our favour.

While we can’t always reschedule events or negotiations, we can set more honest expectations of ourselves.

2. Letting Go of Performative Strength in Leadership

Girlboss era was deeply performative. In the male-dominated corporate leadership environments many of us came of age in, looking like a winner mattered more than feeling like one.

Soft girl era creates space to celebrate wins, whether they happen onstage or behind closed doors, and regardless of what seat we hold at the table. We can share them when we want, and on our own terms.

It also allows us to admit we don’t know everything. As the saying goes, the more you know, the less you know, so why did we ever create a leadership mask that pretends otherwise?

My new rules are simple:

• I’m allowed to change my mind

• I’m allowed to pause before responding

• I’m allowed to pursue ambition without shouting about it

  
  

3. Choosing Yourself as a Leadership Act

For the girlboss, leadership often meant self-abandonment disguised as resilience. Be available. Be flexible. Above all, be grateful, even when it cost your energy, clarity, or health.

Soft girl era gently dismantles that by reframing self-respect as a professional skill.

In practice, this looks like being selective with your energy:

• Who gets access to you

• Which conversations deserve your emotional labour

• Which projects align with who you are now, not who you had to be to survive earlier chapters

  
  

That selectivity is a power move.

Go Soft or Go Home

Soft girl ambition isn’t small ambition. It’s selective ambition, and it’s highly strategic.

It’s about biohacking energy, letting go of corporate rules that were never designed for us, and being intentional about where we invest our most valuable resource.

This is ambition with longevity. With clarity. With wisdom.

In a world facing AI disruption, economic pressure, and rising expectations of women, this shift matters more than ever to our mental wellbeing, our careers, and our health.

I’m no longer interested in being the most impressive person in the room.

I’m interested in being in the right rooms.

Zoe Koumbouzi is a marketing advisor and fractional leader working across travel, hospitality, and tech. She helps brands and leaders clarify their positioning, sharpen their storytelling, and build trust through visibility. She’s based in Barcelona and is a single mom of three.