How to recognise and celebrate your strengths 💪

_{Read in 5m 50s ∙ Listening to the Barbie soundtrack}

Dear readers,

Growing up, we’re never taught how to celebrate ourselves. From receiving gold stars at school to getting promoted by our managers, how “good” we are is so often determined by external factors - rather than by our own self-belief.

Unless we’re lucky enough to grow up with people who instil this self-belief within us from a young age, learning to recognise and celebrate our strengths is something we have to teach ourselves.

This is a journey I’ve been on myself. When I decided to quit my seven-year fashion career, I was utterly terrified. I thought my only strength was “fashion” - and I’d be leaving it behind. But in reality? There were so many strengths I’d been building through the various jobs I’d had and in other areas of my life.

That’s why I’ve put together a guide to recognising and celebrating your strengths, to help people in the same boat as me. This edition also contains the usual roundup of the week’s biggest global headlines, along with our weekly quiz and the team’s recs for the weekend.

Big love,

Calypso x
The Know’s Jobs Board Lead

POLITICS & GLOBAL AFFAIRS

🪧 Labour won the Selby and Ainsty by-election, overturning a Conservative majority of more than 20,000 votes. The party narrowly failed to take Boris Johnson’s old seat of Uxbridge and South Ruislip. The Lib Dems overturned a 19,000 Conservative majority to win the seat of Somerton and Frome.

🏳️‍🌈 PM Rishi Sunak apologised for the historical treatment of LGBT veterans who were sacked or prevented from serving in the military for being gay. The ban, which lasted from 1967 to 2000, “was an appalling failure of the British state”, he said.

🇪🇺 The EU risked causing a diplomatic row after referring to the Falkland Islands as “Islas Malvinas” - the Argentine name - in a declaration. The PM’s spokesperson later confirmed that the EU’s position on the Falklands had “not changed”.

CULTURE

🎬 The Barbie movie - out today - was announced as the frontrunner in the battle for box office supremacy. Greta Gerwig’s movie is predicted to earn $110m at the US box office this weekend, while Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer is predicted to bring in $50m.

🌳 NBC Universal denied trimming tree branches on a stretch of roadway outside Universal Studios in order to make conditions for striking actors and writers more difficult in the Los Angeles heat.

🕵️ US authorities issued a search warrant in connection with the unsolved murder of rapper Tupac Shakur, who was killed aged 25 in a drive-by shooting in 1996.

WORK & INNOVATION

🍔 McDonald’s “deeply apologised” after a BBC investigation unveiled a “toxic culture of sexual assault, harassment, racism and bullying” alleged by more than 100 current and recent UK staff at outlets of the fast-food chain.

🤖 Meta announced the launch of Llama 2 - a new AI system designed to rival ChatGPT. Mark Zuckerberg, the company’s chief, said the system would be free to use for research and commercial purposes.

🛻 Tesla unveiled its long-delayed Cybertruck four years after its initial launch didn’t go quite to plan. CEO Elon Musk said the new-look electric pick-up truck would begin production this year.

UPLIFTING STUFF

🌊 An Australian sailor and his dog were rescued after spending three months standed at sea. The pair survived on a diet of raw fish and rainwater - and the moment of their rescue was captured on camera.

🔬 A global trial looking at the dementia drug donanemab found that it slowed the pace of the disease by about a third. The Alzheimer’s Society described the news as a “turning point in the fight against Alzheimer’s”.

🏊‍♀️ The Welsh reservoirs in Cardiff prepared to reopen following a 23-year battle by community members who saved them from being drained and used as land for houses and flats.

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📺 Watch: Barbie and Oppenheimer (out in cinemas now), The Bear S2 (Disney+), Fifteen-Love (Prime Video).

🗞️ Read: This great Guardian article featuring interviews with chefs about fun, flavourful ways to fancy up your food on a budget. From holding on to an old cheese rind to recycling rice water, this piece is full of handy tips for levelling up your cooking game.

🎧 Listen to: A bright pink cultural history of Barbie - a recent episode of The Times’ Story of our times podcast featuring writer Hadley Freeman. Or, if you’re not one for Barbiemania, check out The Retrievals - a new narrative podcast from the makers of Serial about a Yale fertility clinic and the “shocking events which unfolded there”.

👀 Do: Check out an exhibition! If you’re based in or near London, we recommend Black Venus, a new, pay-what-you-can Somerset House show examining the historical representation and shifting legacy of black women in visual culture.

Our Jobs Board highlights purpose-driven opportunities, flexible and female-founded environments, and employers who champion mental health.

🧘 Co-Found with Founders Factory - Mission Studio
We’re loving: The opportunity to partner with a team of founders and entrepreneurs to develop a new, mission-driven speech therapy venture. Plus there’s £500k total investment in cash and services to help you build it!

Our other top jobs this week include roles at PR and social media firm Rachel Harrison Communications, sustainable activewear brand TALA and the period and ovulation tracker FLO Health. Check them out 👉 here 👈
 
Want to reach 175,000 women with your latest roles? Email [email protected] if you’d like to list your jobs with us.

The Know is an independent media company on a mission to help everyone start their day feeling informed and hopeful. Our daily newsletter always features the day’s top stories broken down without jargon, uplifting news to put a smile on your face and hand-picked recs we think you’ll love.

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