Influencers are very busy people these days. A few years ago, the trend from influencers was to banish the word “busy” because many felt it made life and work into a competition, a race to have the least amount of free time, and a badge of honour that was ultimately bad for mental health. The new trend is to embrace having a busy, full life, but taking pride in organising it to extract every last drop and make the most of your time, focusing less on being “busy” and more on the actual activities.
Lucy Jackson is no stranger to being busy – she is a host on the second most popular podcast in Australia (Happy Hour with Lucy & Nikki) and has co-founded multiple multi-million dollar businesses. She now has released an app that aims to organises the lives of others, launching the Basic Girls Guide (aka BGG) app this week.
The history of the app lies in analogue diaries and planners. Jackson originally started releasing weekly and daily diaries and day planners in 2020, which are still available and start at $44.95. There’s also a Basic Girls Bible coffee table book, filled with large print affirmations and quotes that the author claims “saved” her for $89.95. Or, if the coffee table book is too unwieldy, there’s a collection of Basic Girls Bible: Quotes That Saved Me cards for $39.95.
Having found popularity in paper, the organisational concept has moved digital to an app that aims to bring your whole life together at a glance. It features a helpful collection of features, including a calendar (which can sync with a Google calendar), events portal, goal-settle, to-do list, period tracker, daily affirmations, iMessage integration and social media platform integration.
I must admit that my first reaction to the name of the app was to roll my eyes. After going through the trends of girl boss, girl dinner and girl maths increasingly infantilising and othering grown women, dragging us back into the dark ages of trad wives and “hehehe I’m just a girl” nonsense, the concept of a ‘Basic Girls Guide’ seemed like another straw on the back of a very overladen camel. (It’s unclear if it’s a guide for basic girls, or a basic guide for girls, unhelped by the existence of the Basic Girls Bible which seems largely unrelated to Christian scripture.) However, while women are certainly not the only people to menstruate (and not all women menstruate), it is a taboo for patriarchal reasons, and embracing it as a normal, non-embarrassing part of life and something that should be factored into your plans can be empowering. Besides, while daily affirmations might not be my jam, they can be incredibly helpful for some people as a way to reshape their self-talk, and who am I to judge that?
In an interview with Gizmodo, Jackson said “Everyone, irrespective of gender, leads a busy life but the BGG app is designed specifically for women. We want to provide resources for women and celebrate those that often are the movers and shakers in their own world. The social integrations of the BGG app, calendar synchronicity and period tracker allow women to have a holistic overview of their lifestyles through the app separate from their male counterparts addressing female issues and concerns.”
The app is chock full of features which can seem overwhelming at first, and if someone already has a busy life that needs further organising, it can be daunting to commit to yet another app with a fiddly set up process. But Jackson is confident that it can make a real difference and encourages people to just give it a shot. “Dive right in. The app is designed so that the more you put in the more you get out of it.”
One potential drawback for the app is the price – there is no free tier, and no one-off payment option. The Lite tier is $4.99 a month to sync your calendar, create events, keep track of a to do list, and keep a daily journal. The Pro version of the app is $7.99 a month and has those features plus the period tracker, daily quotes, horoscope updates, and theme customisation. That’s a big ask when your phone already does most of those things for free with built-in apps. However, Jackson is confident that a subscription-based model is the right way to go “We believe that people should always have the opportunity to opt in and opt out. BGG is a community not a cult.”
At a time when many people are getting subscription fatigue, in the middle of a cost of living crisis, it is a brave move to have subscription-based pricing. But, again, Jackson was confident that her audience would appreciate the decision to keep it subscription-based. “In the era of Netflix, Binge, Spotify premium and more we are becoming a subscription generation. I believe people prioritise the things they wish to prioritise. But again, since covid we’ve seen a significant emphasis on entertainment and self-care and we believe BGG attains both.”
BGG is currently available on iOS with a 7 -day free trial.