Since launching her hit podcast, Call Her Daddy, in 2018, Alex Cooper has made a series of strategic business moves to become the most popular (and highest paid) female podcaster globally, including ditching Barstool Sports in favor of Spotify in 2021 (for $60 million) and relocating again to SiriusXM this year (for $125 million). As her contracts have grown, so has Cooper’s unfiltered persona and prudent business strategy. And now, the 30-year-old entrepreneur is beginning her foray into the drink world with the launch of her new bottled beverage, Unwell Hydration.
Cooper, who has been an athlete her whole life, reminisced about constantly being the girl walking around with a gallon of water in a recent interview with Spoon University. “I was so grossed out by how much water I was having to drink every day to get ready for practices,” recalled Cooper. “I didn’t want to run away from hydration, but I know it’s what I need.”
The podcaster, who is known for her always honest (and occasionally unhinged) discourse on female health, relationships, and lifestyle on Call Her Daddy, remembers not liking any hydration drinks she’d tried and feeling like every beverage on the market was made with men in mind.
“I needed hydration, but every single hydration drink feels like it’s for men,” says Cooper. “All the marketing is for men, and it feels like you have to be a professional athlete to be drinking it.” So, Cooper took things into her own hands and created Unwell Hydration, which she describes as “a drink by women, for everybody.”
The mogul, who says that she could’ve used Unwell Hydration back in college, wanted a hydrating pick-me-up that’s not filled with sugar, even as an adult that’s not playing competitive sports. To Cooper, Unwell Hydration is “a perfect transition of my previous college life to now my adult life.”
“In college, I used to drink Gatorade,” Cooper says, “And I remember thinking ‘this just does not taste good because it’s so sugary.” Enter Unwell Hydration, an electrolyte-enhanced bottled beverage that only has four grams of sugar, a touch of caffeine from green coffee extract, and “actually tastes good,” according to Cooper (and I can attest).
“When you wake up to study in the morning or have a 3 p.m. class and — whether you’re hungover or you’re not — you drink Unwell with your textbook, and you’re gonna feel like a genius, and you’re back and ready to go,” suggests Cooper, who says there’s a bunch of ways to implement Unwell Hydration into your life.
“I think there’s a lot of pressure in college when it comes to drinking culture, and I feel like just holding one of these or pouring it into a cup with ice is enough,” Cooper proposes when it comes to college parties. Whether you’re sober-curious, the designated driver, or just not drinking, Unwell is a great option for college students. “You’re hydrating yourself, and it’s really, really yummy.”
If she were in college now, though, Cooper muses that she would probably be “getting some Unwell Hydration, and making some tequila and vodka cocktails.” According to the podcaster, who personally has been mixing the mango citrus flavor with tequila and the strawberry flavor with vodka (“and I’m having the time of my life”), the new beverage makes a quick, easy, and amazing mixer.
“I’ve been making such good cocktails with it, because it’s not like, too overpowering, but it does enough of the trick where you’re like, ‘I’m not drinking straight alcohol.’”
Cooper, who attended Boston University, admits to throwing pre-games in her dorm room with “the most impeccable vibes” and accumulated a lot of tips for both drinking responsibly and hosting along the way. “When the school year started, I would get the most insane posters from the poster sale on-campus for, like, $5,” the BU alumna and soccer player recalls.
“I would get the funniest ones, so immediately it’s a conversation starter, and then we need some of the cool string lights, and you get a good playlist going,” Cooper advises. “Immediately, the vibes are impeccable, you are on a budget, and you are already the coolest kid on campus, there you go.”
Thanks to her college experience, Cooper is now transitioning into the role of holiday host with ease, despite having no intentions of ever becoming the formal party host. “I’m the youngest in my family, so I feel like the youngest is not supposed to know, but somehow, someway, I got myself into hosting,” says Cooper, who, ironically, hosts celebrity guests (from celebrity singers and presidential candidates to stars of The Bachelor franchise and influencers) on her podcast almost weekly.
“I feel like everyone’s like, ‘Oh, when you host like you you can’t have fun, and you have to be working and focused.” This season, though, Cooper is flipping that notion on its head. “When you host, you can have fun,” says Cooper with her bubbly, IDGAF, effortlessly-cool-girl attitude shining through. “Because guess what? If someone can’t find something, they’ll figure it out,” she assured.
“Just because I’m hosting doesn’t mean I get to, like, not enjoy myself.” she said. “I want to have fun, too!”
Ready to embrace unwellness? You can keep up with Alex Cooper via Instagram and new episodes of “Call Her Daddy,” and try Unwell Hydration beginning January 1, 2025, exclusively at Target stores nationwide and on Target.com.