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Follow us on Instagram @ChooseBooksOverBooze
The Sober Women Project - offers 'Sober Moments' inspired by the ongoing reading and research that was carried out as part of and alongside my PhD, exploring the contemporary sober movement and the growing number of women who are choosing to renegotiate their relationship with alcohol.
Drawing on lived experience, this project shares women’s stories of how and why they are navigating sobriety, sobriety-curiosity, and alcohol-free lives. It recognises sobriety not as a single pathway, but as a personal, evolving journey shaped by health, identity, community, and circumstance.
Alongside these stories, The Sober Women Project shines a light on the women working across all areas of alcohol harm reduction, recovery, education, advocacy, and research. From grassroots organisers to practitioners, writers, and academics, these women are doing vital, landscape-changing work—often in challenging and under-recognised environments.
Together, these voices help build understanding, visibility, and connection—past and present—around women, alcohol, and change
The Sober Women Project invites women to share their stories anonymously and contribute to a growing body of knowledge about why women choose to change their relationship with alcohol.
By sharing lived experience, you can help build understanding of the why, the how, and the challenges that often sit behind decisions to get sober or sober-curious. These stories help illuminate the realities of navigating alcohol in everyday life—at home, at work, in friendships, motherhood, health, culture, and community.
All contributions can be shared anonymously, with care and respect. There is no right or wrong story, no expectation of a particular outcome, and no pressure to label your journey. Whether you are newly questioning your relationship with alcohol or years into an alcohol-free life, your experience matters.
Participation is entirely voluntary. By submitting your story, you are giving informed consent for it to be used as part of this project, and you may withdraw your contribution at any time without explanation or consequence.
Together, these stories help reduce stigma, challenge silence, and support more honest conversations about women, alcohol, and change.
Choose Books Over Booze initiative was developed from early findings of research carried out from a PhD project at Manchester Metropolitan University, exploring how people – particularly women – are renegotiating their relationship with alcohol and what tools they are using to do this.
Early findings and collated lived experience stories consistently show that for many people, reading quit lit can be a supportive first step in the sober journey. Books often provide the language, reassurance, and reflection at a time when people may not yet feel ready -or able -to access formal or clinical support.
In response to this, the project has partnered with Manchester Central Library to raise awareness of the quit-lit genre and to improve access to it. By investing in these books and increasing their availability through the public library network, the initiative aims to remove financial and practical barriers that can prevent people from engaging with supportive reading.
Libraries offer free, inclusive, alcohol-free spaces where people can explore change privately, at their own pace, and without labels. 'Choosing books over booze' is about offering information, stories, and support through words in a stigma-free space, with supportive signposting for those who may need it.
By building and sharing recommended reading lists in this growing genre, this initiative supports individuals at the very start of their journey while also recognising the role of authors, researchers, and online sober communities in shaping healthier conversations around alcohol.
Quit lit (short for quitting literature) is a growing collection of books and media that helps people think about and take steps to change their relationship with alcohol or other substances. It includes real-life stories, practical advice, and easy-to-understand information, as well as podcasts, blogs, videos, and guided activities. Quit Lit can support anyone who is taking a break from drinking, extending a dry period, or choosing to step into an alcohol-free life.
Quit Lit matters because it offers people accessible, non-judgemental ways to reflect on their drinking and make informed choices about change. By reading the combined personal stories with practical insight, it helps reduce stigma, challenges long-held social norms around alcohol, and provides reassurance that questioning drinking is valid, shared and a positive step. From the early findings of my research and my own experience working in online sober communities, quit lit frequently acts as a gentle and supportive first step. For many people - especially those facing barriers to clinical support - it can offer space to reflect, question, and reassess their relationship with alcohol, with the potential to support initial moves towards an alcohol-free life.