Gifts for the Coolest Girl You Know
Made by the coolest girl you follow.
Gifts for the Coolest Girl You Know is in partnership with Adobe. If you would like to work with The Love List, please email lauren@aire-ny.com.
There’s an ongoing assumption about “cool girls” that I’ve never really bought; the idea that they arrive fully formed, effortlessly composed, and untouched by the logistics of real life. Like everything is easy and nothing ruffles them. Lies!
In reality, the coolest women I know are the opposite. They are creative and deeply resourceful, the kind of people who can turn a mess into a system or a passing idea into something beautiful.
What is a “cool girl”, exactly? I don’t know exactly, but I don’t think cool is a performance; I think it’s actually competency with a clear point of view. It’s the ability to make things function well long-term because you built the machinery underneath. What lies beneath the myth of looking “effortless” is actually, well… effort. Just the proactive kind, not the reactive kind.
I say this as someone who has lived inside the Adobe Creative Suite for almost 15 years. It’s my native operational language. Before Substack, before “content,” before half the jobs I’ve held even existed, I was using Photoshop and InDesign to make things I needed but couldn’t find. It’s the juice behind all the “How’d you do that?” questions I get.
Most people don’t realize how many graphics in this newsletter were built by me in Adobe Express at 1 a.m., surrounded by half-drunk cups Marriage Freres and open tabs on Pinterest. Adobe has always been my toolset. It’s how I think.
Which is why (during the holidays, wedding planning, and peak work season) I’ve been leaning heavily into Adobe Acrobat Studio, because it gives the logistics the same level of beauty and control as the visuals. It’s a system for the women who do everything and look good doing it — because they haven’t broken a sweat.
From there, everything starts to ladder together. Holiday planning (gifts, menus, seating charts) is more civilized. Travel documents stop living in seventeen different folders. Booking emails, passport scans, packing lists, and shared itineraries roll up into a single, elegant workspace instead of a messy muted group chat.
PDF Spaces, which is available in Acrobat Studio, can turn all those documents and websites into sharable, conversational knowledge hubs, powered by personalized AI Assistants.
Whether you’re planning a holiday, organizing a wedding or managing a business, (or all three simultaneously — me!) PDF Spaces allow you to uncover insights, generate ideas and validate responses with precise citations – all in a single, dynamic environment.
For me, that means editable checklists, integrated calendars, consolidated PDFs, secure storage, clean collaboration, and AI agents designed to summarize, organize, or even build templates on command. It’s super slick! Entire PDF Spaces can be shared with colleagues, clients, customers and classmates, ensuring seamless collaboration and effortless extraction of insights.
And if you’re a business owner, or simply someone who moves through the world with ambition, Acrobat Studio becomes the quiet infrastructure behind your busiest seasons.
Campaign briefs, pop-up plans, order forms, shipping details, invoices, tax prep, and yes, graphics for your Substack—it all lives in one place, integrated with Adobe Express so your work assets, gift guides, cards, templates, and social posts can be built and stored without toggling around.
The coolest girls I know make stuff every day. They’re founders, designers, creators, collaborators and thought leaders who also happen to be really nice people. Inspired by them, here are over 50 gift ideas for the coolest girl you know, all made by the coolest women I know. Because the way actually “cool” women work is creatively, resourcefully, and with talent in the systems no one ever sees.
A few early BFCM notes for the cool-adjacent:
If you’ve had your eye on a Ziip microcurrent device, the brand is offering 20% off on their heroic Halo zip zapper with our code GRAVES. I love this thing, it’s got three different frequencies and it really does give you a lift. (If you need a gel restock, this code gets you 30% off that, too.)
I think hand cream is essential this time of year (especially if you wear bare nails like me), and evolvetogether’s come in a set of three — one to keep, two to gift — now also 20% off, no code needed.
And heads up, I have on good authority that COS will be running 25% off for Black Friday, real ones know to build your cart now. I shared these navy skirt/trousers earlier this week in chat, which (ahem) look a lot like Jennifer Lawrence’s viral (and sold out) Paloma Wool joints. If you’re looking for a low-stakes entry into the whole hair pin moment, they have that, too. And of course, there’s the sweater that Substack stays feral for, which may or may not bear some resemblance to a certain style that begins with “O”. (There’s also a less expensive alternative to the Gala pants, but COS’s have a pocket and are made from modal jersey, not crepe. Take that as you will.)
