Meet Flossie
THE SASSY LITTLE SISTER OF THE FLORENCE.
She’s cheeky. She’s irreverent. Occasionally navel-gazing. She questions. She overthinks. She consults. Then she charges forward confidently in the direction of her choosing.
If you saw her dictating to her phone at a coffee shop, no, you didn’t.
She laughs easily. Loves a diner, a four-course meal, a girl dinner. Always orders fries on the side. Loves an interior. A cozy armchair. A design book. A reuben. A long walk. Intimate conversation. Absolutely detests small talk.
She has a lot of interests. We suspect you do, too.
Read the Room
Flossie is the newsletter and podcast from The Florence, our physical clubhouse and membership community for women in Charlotte, NC.
Here, you can expect real stories from women building full, complicated, ambitious lives.
We’re interested in how we make a life that feels like our own. The work we pursue. The people we surround ourselves with. What we put on our tables, how we make our homes, what makes us feel good in our bodies. The things we do simply because we enjoy them.
And that feeling of loving what’s right in front of you while still wondering what else might be possible.
With Flossie, there’s room to get lost in thought. Discover something. Reconsider. To have an idea before you know what to do with it, and to hear from someone whose life looks nothing like yours.
We hope you leave with language for something you’ve felt. A recommendation worth keeping. A little more curiosity about your own life and the women around you.
Subscribe for full access to every essay and the archive.
The Unfiltered Version
New posts land straight in your inbox. No algorithm deciding if you see them.
Expect personal essays, interviews, photography, guest voices and recommendations we’re eager to pass along. Our interests tend to gather around five subjects:
A Life of One’s Own. Identity, motherhood, friendship and the selves we keep discovering. What we inherit. What we choose. Second, third and fourth acts.
Ambition With a Body. Meaningful work, money, health and the realities of pursuing something while having a whole life to tend to. How our ambitions change with our circumstances—and how we make room for them.
The Architecture of Belonging. Hospitality, community and the thoughtfulness that makes us feel welcome. A good introduction. A standing lunch. What happens when someone makes the effort to bring people together.
Taste as a Way of Seeing. Art, interiors, style, beauty, food and books. The people who make things we love. The rituals and recommendations we return to. Learning to trust our own eye.
Building The Florence. Notes from the middle of building a business. Decisions, doubts, discoveries and the occasional expensive lesson.
You’ll also meet Friends of The Florence: women whose work, taste and lives make us curious. Artists, founders, cooks, writers and people we’d happily lose an afternoon talking to. We have a standing question for all of them: Who is at your table?
The Flossie podcast gives those conversations more room.
Who is behind this?
I’m Margaret Cheatham Williams, founder of The Florence, journalist, photographer and mother of three boys.
I spent 15 years in journalism, working across The New York Times, The Washington Post and ProPublica. I wrote, shot, edited and produced stories about women, health, family and identity. I wanted people to understand something about a life they hadn’t lived.
For years, I chased impact on a national scale. When I returned home to Charlotte after years in New York City and San Francisco, I found myself wanting something more local. A place to spend time with people. To make things. To feel useful and interested and part of a community.
Having children had changed my priorities. It had also magnified my need for something of my own. I loved my family. I wanted meaningful work, beautiful surroundings, conversation that went somewhere. A place where all of those desires could coexist.
Women have so many places we’re expected to be and so few where we can just show up. I wanted to build a place that made being together easier. And, selfishly, I wanted to spend time there.
The Florence is a club for women, beginning in Charlotte, bringing together social life, work and wellness under one roof. Flossie is its editorial little sister.
The same curiosity that led me into journalism is here, too. There are still so many women I want to meet. So many questions I want to ask.
You belong here
For dreamers who do and doers who dream.
For founders and caretakers, mentors and friends. Women settled into work they love. Women considering a change. Mothers wanting something of their own. Anyone with an interest she’d like to follow a little further.
You don’t need a new venture or a grand reinvention to belong here. An appetite for a good conversation will do.
We believe in coming as you are. Dreaming unabashedly. Sharing what you know and making introductions generously. Being grateful for the life you have while giving yourself permission to imagine what comes next.
You don’t have to belong to The Florence, live in Charlotte or have any intention of joining a club.
Read. Comment. Talk back. Send something to a friend. Tell us what you’re thinking about.
A note on having it all
We have no five-step plan for that.
We’re interested in what women actually want, how that changes, and what it takes to make room for it. Sometimes that conversation is deeply personal. Sometimes it leads to a book, a lipstick, a dinner reservation.
We’re happy to follow it.
Is it free?
We ask for a nominal subscription fee to support our work.
We offer occasional free content made possible with support from a small number of thoughtfully chosen brand partners.
Any paid partnerships and affiliate links will be clearly identified. Our opinions remain our own.
Pull up a chair. We’re glad you’re here.
