Alex Cooper is the cover star of this month’s Marie Claire magazine. It’s for their Moguls edition: a magazine on the theme of, well, moguls.

Alex Cooper is an interesting character to me. There’s no doubt she’s smart, intelligent and good at what she does. Any woman who can secure those kinds of deals, grow an audience of her size and build the empires she’s building is naturally impressive.

She’s not a pop-cultural figure I deeply follow. Admittedly, I dip into her podcast every now and again. Namely because she often gets the best scoops – Ariana following the Scandoval drama, Hayley Bieber talking about Selena Gomez, and most recently, Rachael Kirkconnell talking about that breakup.

And yet, her recent cover and corresponding interview (written by the formidable Nikki Ogunnaike) caught my attention. Alex Cooper is a woman who is proudly and loudly a girlboss. She’s unashamedly ambitious. She’s blatantly work-obsessed. And is unabashedly competitive.

In 2025, years after the culture has deemed the girlboss dead, the way in which Alex Cooper markets herself can feel puzzling.

Take these comments she made in the piece. When asked what she is like to work for, she replied, “I do think anyone around me in business would say, Alex Cooper is tough to work for because she will not bend if it does not make sense for her and her brand and her audience.”

When asked how she likes to “turn off”, she responded, “Turning off though means, for me - it's going to sound weird - but Matt and my dream is we can do a weekend or a four day vacation, if we ever get to do that, which is rare. And on those trips we always say, let's do three to four hours a day of brainstorming, because we don't actually get to brainstorm as much as we wish every day because we're in the thick of it.” To which Nikki replies, “So, what I'm hearing is brainstorming is you turning off.”

It’s clear she’s just being honest. And for that, I give her props. But my kneejerk response to be one of confusion or alarm speaks to something far more interesting.

For the women who found identity in the ‘girlboss’, who are happy to emulate the doggedness of successful men – how do we as a society, as other women, make sense of them today?

This is a concept that Alex herself takes note of in her interview. She says, “I don't think we've cracked the code on how to embrace and celebrate and trust women who are running companies or who are leaning into the fact that they are a boss and or an entrepreneur.”

Alex Cooper feels as puzzling to me as Em Rata in the mid-2010s. A woman who leaned into the male gaze, made millions, and called it feminism. But perhaps, that’s a topic for another day…

Why do I find this side of Alex to be so grating?

Alex herself believes it has to do with misogyny. That women – or all people for that matter – don’t feel comfortable with confident women. While this could be the case, I feel it’s too reductionistic an answer.

If I were reading this same article but it was about a man, I do believe it would engender the same level of distaste. I’d probably roll my eyes and call him lame. I probably wouldn’t even read the article to begin with.

Could some of my irritation come from the value set she espouses? I’m all for ambition, but I find her ‘work-at-all-costs’ approach to be grating. A belief system that does more harm than good.

Or, perhaps, my frustration is at the culture that holds these figures up? A culture that sees success purely through the lens of money and power; that applauds those who act doggedly in business, who choose work and achievement over peace and wellbeing.

For all of these questions, I don’t have answers.

But perhaps, asking them is helpful enough.

Originally published 8 February 2025.

Original piece can be read here.

Image sourced from Marie Claire, Mogul Edition.