It would be great to see Mamamia reach out to a neurodivergent-focused nutritionist to comment on de-stigmatising ADHD behaviours around eating. The acknowledgment of the validity of the girly dinner within the context of the overworked culture we are living in was cursory, and the general message of this article is accusing eaters of “girl dinners” of being lazy, disordered eaters. This is a disappointingly allistic take. I spent much of my early 20s ashamed of feeling so overwhelmed by the prospect of meal planning, shopping, cooking, cleaning up, etc., and eating what I could manage to put together without feeling overwhelmed was an accomplishment. I didn’t deprive myself - I just didn’t put all the ingredients into a time-consuming event. Even your fifteen-minute soup would have overwhelmed me! I’d also love to see a more balanced insight into the reasons behind choosing a girl dinner. This is an interesting phenomenon expressing empowerment. Especially the linguistic evolution of embracing “girly” for female empowerment, like hot girl walk, hot girl summer, etc. Sometimes a girl dinner is a treat - it can be all the delicious and sometimes expensive things you love in one platter of delights. It’s not just fighting gender norms - it’s a choice to prioritise self care. It’s a simple indulgence without caring about the labour of meal planning to impress anyone but yourself. There’s nothing depressing about choosing to eat your favourite things. It’s nice that you find cooking for yourself to be enjoyable. Not everyone does. Sometimes a girl dinner represents an achievement fighting the daily overwhelm. Sometimes it’s all we can afford scrounged from the recesses of the fridge before pay day. Let’s not forget that we are in a COL crisis. And yeah, sometimes it IS disordered eating, and I’m sure you’re aware that shaming anyone out of disordered habits by calling their choices “depressing” isn’t going to be effective.