Erin and Sara Foster Reveal the Rule That Keeps Their Business—and Sisterhood—Working

4 min readWhether you’ve binged all three seasons of the Netflix comedy Nobody Wants This, presided over a board meeting in your chicest Favorite Daughter blazer, or nodded along to a cringey dating anecdote while listening to The World’s First Podcast, you are no doubt familiar with the work of multi-hyphenate sisters Erin and Sara Foster.Raised in Los Angeles (dad is famous record producer David Foster), the sisters first gained notoriety with their VH1 mockumentary series, Barely Famous, in 2015. Since then, they’ve gone on to launch several successful businesses, including their clothing line and a production company, Fatigue Sisters Productions. (They even recently served as guest sharks on ABC’s Shark Tank.)With the season 3 premiere of Nobody Wants This (based on Erin’s own experience of dating and marrying a Jewish man and later converting to Judaism), the dynamic duo stopped by the Women’s Health podcast The Huddle to chat with editors Abby Cuffey and Jacqueline Andriakos about doing business together, setting boundaries, and raising kids.Becoming BusinesswomenErin and Sara launched their clothing line, Favorite Daughter, in late 2020 to fill gaps in their own closets. But as the company has grown and evolved over time, they’ve learned to put their customers at the heart of everything they do. It’s also forced the sisters to staff up with people who are willing to share their true opinions, rather than simply being yes-men or yes-women.“That's something that is really challenging when you have a talent-focused brand,” Erin says. “It's taken a very long time for us to convince the people who work for us to be honest with us. That’s how people become monsters—no one's telling them the truth.”“I always say, too, this is a democracy,” Sara adds. “This only works if everyone feels heard. This only works if you're allowed to do the thing that you're hired to do.”Having a valued third or even fourth opinion also comes in handy when the two can’t see eye-to-eye, which happened often when the brand first launched.“We’re in a good place today, but we would have blow-up screaming fights in fittings for many years at Favorite Daughter,” Erin says. “It’s tricky for us, because we do not have differentiated, carved-out roles. We have the exact same role, so if we disagree, it's really challenging to find the happy medium.”Speaking Their TruthIn 2021, the sisters’ working relationship expanded further when they launched their podcast The World's First Podcast with Erin & Sara Foster. While the duo aren’t shy about diving into personal topics—be it romantic relationships or raising children—they have set certain boundaries to ensure their friends and family don’t end up embarrassed or as headline fodder.“I have an idea of where [my husband’s] boundaries are,” Erin says. “He's not really into me talking about exes or other relationships.”Sara, on the other hand, learned the hard way where one of her daughter’s boundaries lie when she revealed her juvenile arthritis diagnosis—in the hopes of helping other parents—and it was picked up by multiple outlets.“It never occurred to me that that could happen,” Sara says. “My daughter was like, ‘I do not appreciate that.’ I was like, ‘Oh god, I'm so sorry.’”Given that they have creative control over the podcast’s content, Erin and Sara do occasionally edit out portions that they think could be taken out of context with the TikTok-ification of media nowadays. “We try to err on the side of keeping things in, but then there's some times that you get a little ahead of yourself,” Erin says.Parenting with TransparencySpeaking of raising daughters, Sara’s got even more wisdom to share on parenting—specifically about telling your kids the harsh truths about yourself.“Being a mother is just such a exercise in getting humbled,” she says. “My instinct was always like, don't reveal yourself too much. Don't let them see your flaws. Don't tell them about all the times you f---ed up as a teenager yourself. But that's the opposite. You're really supposed to. Maybe some people disagree with this, but as they get older, you’re supposed to reveal mistakes you made, things that you wish you did differently... That has changed the dynamic with me and my older daughter—being honest with her about things that I wish I had done differently.”Erin agrees: “I think it's probably better for your children to grow up knowing that you are a complicated, flawed person, and then you don't have to fall off a pedestal for them.”To hear more from the sisters about how they find the creativity to create, their stance on kids and social media, and why they’re obsessed with a certain protein powder, click play on the latest episode of The Huddle above!Video Executive Producer Dorenna NewtonVideo Director of Photography Derrick Saint PierreVideo Editor Deanna ChapmanAmy Wilkinson is a contributing entertainment editor at Women's Health, where she edits the magazine's celebrity cover stories and writes health features. She has previously held editor titles at Entertainment Weekly and MTV News. In 2021, Amy completed her 600-hour teacher-training at Core Pilates NYC to become a comprehensively trained Pilates instructor.