Sabotage, secrets, and shock abound in the Apple TV series, The Morning Show, starring Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston. But Witherspoon’s role in the series goes beyond acting: her company, Hello Sunshine, helps produce it.
Hello Sunshine, founded in 2016, “aims to broaden perspective and empower women,” and established the company to support female storytellers across all walks of life, “creating a platform to help them shape culture and the world around them.” Hello Sunshine’s work includes many adaptations of books written by women, from the series Little Fires Everywhere, one of the companies’ first productions based on Celeste Ng’s novel, to the movie Fair Play, inspired by Eve Rodsky’s book. Hello Sunshine also launched a program in 2021 called LitUp, to connect female authors from underrepresented backgrounds with agents, access to a writers’ retreat, marketing support from Hello Sunshine, and a mentor from one of the previous author picks for Reese’s Book Club.
Witherspoon first began her journey to champion women’s voices in storytelling with the now-famous Reese’s Book Club. What started as Witherspoon sharing the new book she was reading each month, grew into a network of people supporting the voices of women in writing. Many book-club authors landed on the New York TimesⓇ Best Sellers list after their selection; a book with the “Reese’s Book Club” sticker on its cover carries a gravitas that fulfills the mission of both the book club and Hello Sunshine, under which Reese’s Book Club now operates: spotlighting the stories women tell, helping them shout their stories from the rooftops.
Rachel Hochhauser’s Lady Tremaine stands as the book club’s March 2026 pick, a twist on Cinderella’s fairy tale where the “evil stepmother” becomes a widowed mother attempting to secure stability for her and her daughters through royal marriage, even her self-righteous, ungrateful stepdaughter. The novel highlights motherhood, widowhood, and the courage and determination of a woman who uses her status to fight for her daughters and find the security she desires.
Hochhauser’s story is just one of countless others that found a unique platform through Hello Sunshine, a platform committed to selecting diverse female writers and giving voice to a demographic of storytellers whose subjectivity too often yields to those who tell their stories without them. This Women’s History Month, we honor and celebrate all the women daring enough to recognize their gift, pick up the pen, and tell their stories; as an aspiring female author myself, I find hope to continue writing because of the community created by Hello Sunshine that believes in the power and validity of a woman’s story.