Laura Brown and Kristina O’Neill had the coolest jobs in magazines. Then they got fired.

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When Laura Brown and Kristina O'Neill met as two ambitious, 20-something, fashion editors at a Marc Jacobs runway show in New York City, on September 10, 2001, they had no idea their lives, or the world, were about to change forever.

It was the night before September 11, 2001 — an event that would shape a generation and, in a strange twist of fate, cement a powerful new friendship.

Together, they would climb the ranks at Harper's Bazaar for more than a decade, becoming close friends and formidable forces in fashion media.

Both women made it to the very top: Brown became editor-in-chief of InStyle and O'Neill, the EIC of WSJ Magazine.

But here's the thing about climbing to the very top: The view is amazing, but the fall is public. And brutal.

The media was changing, and within a year of each other, they were both out. Brown was fired from InStyle in February 2022. O'Neill was let go just 14 months later.

Instead of wallowing, they chose the ultimate power move: they decided to own the narrative.

They took a selfie, shared it on Instagram and wrote the caption: "All the cool girls get fired."

The post went instantly viral, proving their story was bigger than any magazine masthead.

Listen to Laura Brown and Kristina O'Neill's chat with Kate Langbroek on No Filter. Post continues below.

Brown's firing was a shock. O'Neill, meanwhile, thought she had the dream job she'd love forever. But after a leadership change, she kept waiting for a crucial meeting with the new editor.

"I sort of took it all to mean keep your head down, keep doing a good job," she said.

But when the time finally came for their meeting, the location changed from the editor's office to the HR conference room just minutes before. We all know what that means.

Under the table, O'Neill messaged Brown, who'd been let go just a year before.

"She was actually in South Africa, of all places. And I said, 'Hey, call me when you wake up, getting the boot'," O'Neill recalled.

Gwyneth Paltrow with O'Neill during her time as Editor-in-Chief of WSJ. Magazine. Image: Getty.

Brown, having already processed her own public exit, immediately knew what to do.

"When she got back she said, 'Let's go out and celebrate'," O'Neill said.

Brown understood the perspective shift that was coming.

"It opened up a breadth of opportunity," she said.

"Some of the biggest trauma about losing a job is like a breakup. It's a routine and a ritual that you were used to having, and it's taken away from you."

But Brown had learned a key lesson: "My value has not gone away because my job's gone."

Kristina O'Neill and Laura Brown at a CALVIN KLEIN afterparty in 2006. Image: Getty.

That viral selfie was more than just a funny moment — it was a strategic declaration against the shame associated with getting fired.

It's the core of their upcoming book, All The Cool Girls Get Fired — part memoir, part unemployment handbook.

While companies often encourage workers to change the narrative, Brown and O'Neill push a different message.

"Own it."

"You must identify what happened to you. You must put a name on it, and then you have to tell people," O'Neill said.

By using the word "fired", they sent a signal: "Hey, this thing happened. Let's take a meeting."

O'Neill knew she couldn't pretend she went out on her own volition.

"Why would I ever leave my dream job?" she said.

Brown during her time as InStyle editor-in-chief with Emily Ratajkowski. Image: Getty.

Speaking to countless women, the authors learned just how much shame women carry.

"Shame is like a big kettlebell… that a lot of women pick up and go, 'Oh, I'm just going to carry this around," Brown said.

Instead, they suggest job loss isn't personal.

"People aren't being fired for cause. They're being fired because things are evolving, are shaking," O'Neill said.

"The one thing you can control is how you walk out of that room and how you feel."

The power of this message is universal. Even women who are "the absolute zenith of all this", like Oprah Winfrey and Jamie Lee Curtis, shared their stories.

O'Neill recalled Oprah spoke about getting fired from a TV station in her early 20s with such vivid detail, it proved "it doesn't matter where you end up in life, that it is a traumatic event for everyone".

"No matter what level of success you have… the feeling when you lose your job is the same, and you feel like s***," Brown added.

Brown and Nicole Kidman. Image: Getty.

Brown and O'Neill's new normal stretched far beyond the fashion world.

The reality was boring and stressful: the "absolute b***h" that is the US healthcare system and constant money worries.

"All these things that are so foreign to you — how're you going to pay your bills? How're you going to get yourself around? How long your money is going to last," Brown said.

"You learn so much more, I think, in the difficulty of that… it's really hard."

Another low point for O'Neill was telling her teenage daughter.

"She couldn't equate the fact that I had worked hard, I had done a good job, and I was successful. She didn't understand why they didn't want me anymore," she said.

"Having to explain what happened to your kids is tough. That was a hard conversation."

But the loss forced a vital perspective shift.

"You find out who your real friends are and who your work friends are," O'Neill said.

"You don't have to buy into living your whole life based on what seat you get at a fashion show," Brown added. "Now we don't have to go to every single fashion show. We go to the fashion shows or the events or whatever, where we're valued, where our friends are, where we're taken care of."

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Laura Brown (@laurabrown99)

The moment O'Neill realised they had a book concept wasn't the day of the selfie, it was the morning after.

"We went to sleep and woke up the next morning… And I called Laura… And I said, 'This is a book.' I knew."

They didn't want to be "self-help divas", rather, a shortcut for the community.

"We're not experts on anything except what it feels like to be fired and what it feels like to get out there and get over it," O'Neill said.

Kaia Gerber, Kristina O'Neill and Cindy Crawford. Image: Getty.

Life has changed drastically since their firings, but if O'Neill could whisper one thing to herself before she walked into that HR room, it would be: "It's going to be okay."

"In that moment, I did not walk into that room telling myself it's going to be okay, and now it's better than okay," she concluded.

"It's been such a curious and fascinating journey that Laura and I are on, and if we can be not only friends to each other, but friends to a community out there who are going through it? That's the biggest reward of all."

At the end of the day, "who doesn't want to be friends with all the cool girls?"

All the Cool Girls Get Fired by Laura Brown and Kristina O'Neill is available now.

Feature image: Supplied.