Welcome to DWBC Curriculum!
Inspired by the personal curriculum TikTok trend, here's a new way to engage with the book club reads, aiming to dive deeper and learn more.
Happy New Year! And welcome to the official start of DWBC Curriculum!
This project debuted on Instagram a few weeks ago, but if you have no idea what I’m talking about, let me get you up to speed. Not much will change for the book club as you know it. Instead, an extra layer is being added for anyone who wants to go deeper, learn more, and explore new ideas together.
Inspired by the personal curriculum trend, we’re introducing three big themes for the year. Each theme lasts three months and includes three books, plus extra resources like podcast episodes, films, YouTube videos, and more. At the end of each trimester, anyone who wants can join an online meeting to talk about the theme as a whole and how the three books connect to answer the curriculum’s big question.
Personal curriculums
Online trends come and go, but sometimes they make your mouth water and wake up a craving you didn’t know you had. That happened to me with the viral savory snack plate, for example, and, more relevant to this conversation, with the personal curriculum trend.
As is often the case with internet phenomena, the origins of the personal curriculum are murky. According to this CNN piece, everything started when Elizabeth Jean shared her commitment to recovering her childhood curiosity. The idea is simple, and sticky. You dedicate an extended period of time to reading and researching a topic, then emerge with a thesis, which might remain oral, take shape as a written essay, or, as often happens, a TikTok.
The appeal of the personal curriculum lies in how directly it speaks to our scattered brains. We’re consuming more content than ever before, yet it all feels incredibly ungraspable.
At the start of a new year, reflection comes naturally. What I have realised is that my mind, once sparkling like a bottle of San Pellegrino, is slowly morphing into a smooth, pink chicken breast. I am not alone. As we lose our capacity to hypothesise and synthesise, recent studies have confirmed what many of us already suspect: we are, in fact, getting dumber.
“We have moved from finite web pages to infinite, constantly refreshed feeds and a constant barrage of notifications. We no longer spend as much time actively browsing the web and interacting with people we know but instead are presented with a torrent of content. This represents a move from self-directed behaviour to passive consumption and constant context-switching.”
There is also something undeniably chic about having a personal curriculum. Studying not to improve one’s career chances or to access a higher salary, but simply to become more interesting, more well-read, more cultured. In a world where taking time to cook yourself dinner can feel hedonistic, spending hours drafting a paper about good and evil just because becomes the ultimate luxury.
Like every other girl dreaming of a Louise Carmen notebook, the personal curriculum trend sank its teeth into my brain. Still, it felt like the DWBC community could offer something more. A space not only to autonomously expand our culture, but also to discuss ideas, hopefully landing on new, fresh conclusions.
What are the themes?
Members around the world voted, and here are the themes for 2026.
January to March: Sisterhood Trap
An attempt to answer the question: How does society teach women who to trust, who to fear, and who to compete with?
May to July: Fit for Profit
A focus on the commodification of the female body.
End of the year: Women Who Work
A discussion of the liberation and exploitation of working women.
How to join DWBC Curriculum!
We’re kicking off January and 2026 with My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante, one of the most famous novels about female friendship, and named the best book of the twenty-first century according to The New York Times.
For now, all you have to do is read the book and meet up with your local chapter to discuss it. For weekly recommendations such as podcast episodes, articles, or YouTube videos that expand on the theme, join the Broadcast Channel on Instagram.
This week’s recommendation: Mina Le’s video essay, Is “True Friendship” Dead?
I hope you are as excited about this project as I am. It feels refreshing to have a New Year’s goal that does not demand increased productivity, but instead insists on making time to think, question, and reflect.
Here’s to a year full of interesting conversations, spirited debates, and finally, using our brains.