I’m standing in front of the fridge, too exhausted to cook but too hungry to sleep. Enter girl dinner—a plate of whatever requires zero effort. A few crackers, some cheese, maybe a couple of cold cuts if I’m lucky. It’s not a meal—IT’S SURVIVAL.
I never imagined that my years in public relations would teach me how to eat like a scavenger. But here we are…
Between press releases, back-to-back meetings, last-minute crisis control, and an inbox that refuses to stay at zero, meals have become… flexible. Some days, they’re planned, balanced and eaten at a respectable hour. Other days, girl dinner is whatever I can pull together between deadlines.
In PR, unpredictability is part of the job. You can have your whole day mapped out, only for a client emergency to send you into an hours-long tailspin. You adapt, you problem-solve, you deliver. But in the process, personal needs—like eating a real meal—often get pushed aside. That’s when girl dinner isn’t just a trend; it’s a coping mechanism.
When Work Dictates How (and If) You Eat
For nearly a decade, I’ve lived by the golden rule of PR: always be available. I could be at a client launch event, handling media relations, or coordinating a crisis strategy at 10 p.m.—and I’ve done all of the above, often on an empty stomach.
The reality of this job means that meal times are often compromised. Lunch turns into coffee, dinner is an afterthought, and suddenly, it’s 11 p.m., and I have NO energy left to fight. Cooking? Not happening. Ordering? Too much effort. So, I grab whatever’s within reach—a little bit of this, and a handful of that—and somehow, it counts as dinner.
The women I know—colleagues, clients, friends—are all in the same boat. It’s not just PR professionals. It’s lawyers, doctors, entrepreneurs, content creators, and moms juggling careers. Somewhere along the way, we stopped expecting to eat “REAL” meals every day. Instead, we piece together whatever we can, when we can, because life doesn’t wait.
Liberation or Just Making Do?
There’s something satisfying about eating exactly what you want, when you want, without having to consider anyone else (after all, you’ve worked really hard for it). No waiting for a dinner reservation, no catering to a partner’s preferences, no obligation to make something elaborate. Girl dinner can feel like a small act of rebellion—choosing yourself over expectations.
But if we look deeper, girl dinner is also a sign of exhaustion. When women default to snack plates, cereal bowls, or handfuls of whatever is left in the fridge, it’s often because we’re drained from doing too much. Not just physically, but mentally—juggling careers, relationships, personal growth, and the never-ending to-do list.
For those of us in high-pressure jobs, girl dinner becomes a quiet ritual—a way to recharge when we’re running on empty but still need to carry on.
The Psychological Side of It
From a psychological perspective, girl dinner sits at an interesting crossroads. On one hand, it can be an intuitive way of eating—listening to your body, satisfying cravings, and removing the pressure of a “perfect” meal.
On the other hand, it can also be a red flag. If your meals always look like a toddler’s snack plate, is it still a choice, or is it a sign that work and life are demanding too much? Are we truly embracing freedom, or have we just accepted burnout as normal?
I’ve had nights where I tell myself I’m “choosing” a snack dinner, when in reality, I’m just too wiped out to cook, I justify it by calling it girl dinner, but deep down, I know it’s not because I want to eat this way It’s because work has drained every ounce of energy from me.
And the more I talk to other women in PR, marketing, and business, the more I realize how common this is. We’ve normalized exhaustion to the point where even feeding ourselves properly feels like a luxury.
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