Welcome to Steel Magnolias. These Terms of Service (the "Terms") are the agreement between you and Steel Magnolias LLC, a California limited liability company ("Steel Magnolias," "we," "us"), when you use the Steel Magnolias mobile app and related services (the "Service"). By creating an account or using the Service, you agree to these Terms. If you don't agree, please don't use the Service.
This is the full-product version of our Terms. It covers the mobile app, membership verification (as it rolls out), the live community (The Oasis, topic chats, and Gardens), Roots (our community forum), Meadows (our live audio spaces), direct messages, Receipts (a private documentation tool), AI-enabled features, and subscription billing. It replaces the earlier pre-launch waitlist version of these Terms.
We've tried to write these Terms to be read, not skimmed. Where we had to use specific legal language, we explain why. If something is confusing, email us at hello@steelmagnolias.app and we'll explain.
01Who we are
Steel Magnolias LLC, a California limited liability company, operates the Service. You can reach us at hello@steelmagnolias.app. Our Privacy Policy explains how we handle your personal information and is part of your agreement with us.
02What Steel Magnolias is, and what it isn't
Steel Magnolias is a community and support platform for women navigating divorce and separation. It is important that you understand what it is and isn't:
Steel Magnolias is peer support, not medical or mental health care. Our members, founders, and staff are not therapists, psychiatrists, counselors, or mental health providers, and are not acting in any professional medical capacity. Nothing in the Service is a diagnosis, treatment recommendation, or substitute for care from a licensed professional. If you're struggling, please also work with a licensed professional.
Steel Magnolias is not legal advice. We are not a law firm. No attorney-client relationship is formed by your use of the Service. For your own legal decisions, please consult an attorney.
Steel Magnolias is not financial advice. For your own financial decisions, please consult a qualified financial professional.
Our AI is a host and helper, not a professional. As we add AI features, they may help welcome members, surface relevant past discussions, and assist with moderation; at launch, the live AI features are voice-note transcription in Receipts and the Magnolia Guide, the labeled AI host in Meadows. AI is never a therapist, doctor, lawyer, or crisis worker; it does not provide professional advice; and it never represents itself as a human member or as the founder. AI-generated content is labeled.
Receipts is a documentation tool, not an evidentiary tool. Receipts helps you keep private notes for yourself. We make no claim that Receipts entries are court-admissible, tamper-proof, or maintained under any chain of custody, and you should not rely on them as legal evidence.
Steel Magnolias is not crisis intervention. If you or someone you love is in danger or in crisis, please reach out right away:
- 988: Suicide and Crisis Lifeline (call or text 988)
- 1-800-799-7233: National Domestic Violence Hotline (text "START" to 88788)
- 911: Emergency services
These resources are available 24/7 and staffed by trained professionals, and they remain free to you regardless of whether you subscribe.
03Who can use Steel Magnolias
Steel Magnolias is a community for women. To create a member account, you must be a woman and you must be at least 18 years old. Trans women are welcome. Being a woman navigating divorce or separation is who this Service is for, and being a woman is a condition of membership, not just a description: by creating a member account you are telling us, truthfully, that you meet it. The Service is intended for users in the United States. The age check runs before an account is created; we don't knowingly allow anyone under 18 to create an account, and we delete any minor's data we discover.
Membership verification. Verification is arriving in an app update. Once it launches, every new member completes the same short verification ceremony before joining the community: a check that a real, live adult is applying, done either as a quick live selfie check or as a short live video hello with a member of our team, your choice. The ceremony does not judge gender, by machine or by person. Instead, you will affirm the eligibility condition above explicitly, and we record that affirmation as a dated, versioned consent record. Existing members who joined before verification will be asked to complete the same ceremony during a grace window after launch; the door is the same for everyone. How verification handles your data, including what we store and what no one keeps, is described in the Privacy Policy under "When you verify your membership."
Verification applies to member accounts: every member account carries a verification record. The only accounts with no verification at all are the demonstration accounts Apple and Google use to review the app, under an exception we document with both stores; those are not member accounts and do not participate in the member community.
Misrepresenting your eligibility, at sign-up or at the verification ceremony, is a serious violation of these Terms (see Section 10).
When these terms take effect. This eligibility and verification language first appears in the version of these Terms dated 2026-07-21 (the "Last updated" date above names the current version). If you created your account by accepting that version or any later one, this language binds you from that acceptance. Every other member is covered by Section 16 instead, including anyone whose sign-up was in flight at the moment the new version was published: we email a plain-language notice (at publication to every account existing then, and to any member we later find without one), and the change takes effect for a member only once 30 days have passed since her notice was sent. That rule is checked wherever these terms are applied, so no one falls between the two: either your account was created by accepting the 2026-07-21 version or a later one, or nothing in this language is enforced against you until 30 days after we send your notice, alongside the verification grace window. During that grace window, every existing member completes the verification ceremony, and the eligibility affirmation is recorded inside it. After the grace window, that affirmation stands as each member's own recorded agreement to this condition, whichever group she started in.
When you use the Service, you agree to:
- Provide accurate account information and keep it current.
- Meet the eligibility condition above, and affirm it truthfully.
- Maintain one account for yourself, using an email address you control.
- Use the Service lawfully and in line with these Terms and our Community Guidelines.
04Your account
You're responsible for keeping your account secure, including your password and any app-lock PIN you set. Your PIN stays on your device and we cannot recover it for you (see the Privacy Policy). You can add optional two-factor authentication in Settings: an authenticator app on your device plus backup codes we give you at setup (available as it rolls out in an app update). Keep your backup codes somewhere safe: if you lose both your authenticator app and your backup codes, restoring access is a deliberate, human-verified process with a seven-day waiting period, designed so no one can quietly take over your account (see the Privacy Policy). Let us know promptly at hello@steelmagnolias.app if you believe your account has been compromised. You're responsible for activity that happens under your account, except to the extent it results from our failure to provide reasonable security.
05Subscription, billing, and the free tier
5.1 What's always free
You don't need a subscription to use Roots (our community forum: read and post) or to reach crisis resources. Crisis tools are always free. You will never be locked out of support.
5.2 What a subscription includes
A subscription unlocks the live core of Steel Magnolias: The Oasis, topic chats, Gardens, Meadows (our live audio spaces), and direct messages, plus Receipts, our private documentation tool. It's one all-inclusive product: there are no feature tiers.
5.3 Price
A subscription is $129 per year or $14.99 per month. It's the same full product either way: monthly and annual are just billing cadences, not different tiers. Annual is the better value (about 28% less than paying monthly) and is pre-selected. Prices are in U.S. dollars and may change for future billing periods with notice; a price change never affects a term you've already paid for.
5.4 Free trial
New subscribers get a 7-day free trial. You add a payment method up front, but you are not charged during the trial. If you don't cancel before the trial ends, your subscription begins and you're charged for the plan you selected. You can cancel anytime during the trial, in your device's subscription settings, and you won't be charged.
5.5 Billing, auto-renewal, and cancellation
All subscriptions are purchased and billed through Apple (App Store) or Google (Google Play) using their in-app purchase systems. We never receive or store your payment details. Your subscription auto-renews at the then-current price unless you cancel at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. You manage or cancel your subscription in your device's subscription settings (App Store or Google Play), not through us, and you can restore a previous purchase from within the app. Canceling stops future renewals; you keep access through the end of the period you've paid for.
5.6 Refunds
Because billing is handled by Apple and Google, refund requests are handled under their policies, through them. We'll help where we can.
5.7 If your subscription lapses
If your subscription ends, you keep the free tier (Roots and crisis resources). For Receipts, you keep read-only access to your existing timeline and can still delete individual entries; creating, transcribing, and editing entries require an active subscription.
06Community rules and acceptable use
Steel Magnolias only works because members protect one another. By using the community, you agree to follow our Community Guidelines and these rules. You will not:
- Post another person's private or identifying information (doxxing), or use the Service to surveil, locate, stalk, or monitor anyone.
- Harass, threaten, intimidate, or bully another member, or incite others to.
- Post hateful content, or content that promotes self-harm or violence.
- Impersonate another member, our staff, or the founder.
- Use someone else's account, evade a block, a ban, or a removal, or create accounts to get around enforcement.
- Post unlawful content, spam, advertising, or solicitation, or use the Service for any unlawful purpose.
- Scrape, copy, or extract other members' content or our data, or attempt to break or probe the Service's security.
- Give professional advice (legal, medical, financial) while presenting yourself as a licensed professional.
You own the content you post in the community, and you're responsible for it. We don't pre-screen everything, but we may review, remove, or restrict content and accounts to enforce these Terms and our Community Guidelines (see Section 10). Direct messages are not monitored on an ongoing basis; we act on them when they're reported. Meadows conversations are live audio: what you say there is subject to the same Community Guidelines and enforcement as anything you post, and other members can report it.
07Receipts: your private documentation tool
Receipts is yours. Entries you create in Receipts are private to you: they are not displayed to the community, not moderated, and not analyzed in aggregate. You can edit or delete your entries at any time (editing overwrites the entry). Receipts content is encrypted as described in the Privacy Policy, and your voice audio is deleted after it's transcribed.
Receipts is a personal documentation tool, not an evidence system. We disclaim any role as a custodian of records or evidence, make no representation that entries are court-admissible or tamper-evident, and you should not rely on Receipts as a substitute for legal documentation. The AI processing in Receipts (transcription, and documentation features as they arrive) is disclosed to you, and you consent to it, the first time you use Receipts (see Section 8 and the Privacy Policy). A built-in way to export your Receipts entries is not available at launch; we'll let you know when it is.
08AI features
Some features of the Service use AI, as described in the Privacy Policy. At launch, the live AI features are voice-note transcription in Receipts (via OpenAI's Whisper) and the Magnolia Guide in Meadows: a clearly labeled AI host that opens, prompts, and closes live audio rooms from pre-written scripts. The Guide does not listen to, record, or process what you say in a room. As we add AI features to the community, they may help welcome members, surface relevant past discussions, and assist our moderators. Membership verification (Section 3) is not an AI feature and is not covered by any of the AI consents described in this section; it has its own consent, and the automated processing it uses is described in the Privacy Policy under "When you verify your membership."
How community AI works. Today, public posts and messages are screened by automated checks and reviewed by human moderators. As AI features arrive (helpers like the Welcomer, and AI-assisted moderation), they run on Anthropic's Claude, and Anthropic does not train on your data.
What AI is, and isn't, here. AI in Steel Magnolias is a host and helper, never a therapist, lawyer, doctor, or crisis worker, and never a private one-on-one chat companion. Anything written by AI carries a visible label, and AI never writes as a member.
Your Receipts are separate. Your private Receipts entries are never processed by AI without their own separate consent, which we ask for the first time you open Receipts.
Your consent and control. You consent at the relevant in-app gate: the community AI disclosure at onboarding for community features, and the Receipts AI disclosure the first time you use Receipts. You can review these disclosures anytime: at onboarding, in these Terms, and in the app's Privacy & Safety section. You can withdraw your consent; for the live Receipts AI, withdrawal stops new Receipts AI processing.
09Our brand, your content
Our brand and materials are ours. Steel Magnolias (the brand, name, logo, our written content, the app and site design, and any original features) belongs to us. You may tell others that Steel Magnolias exists and link to us, but you may not copy, modify, or distribute our content, code, or brand materials without permission; misuse our trademarks; reverse-engineer or scrape the Service; build a competing service from ours; or represent yourself as Steel Magnolias.
Your content stays yours. You keep ownership of what you post. To operate the Service, you grant us a limited, non-exclusive license to host, store, display, and transmit your community content as needed to run and moderate the community and provide the Service to you and other members. This license ends when you delete the content or your account, except for content others have already received (like a message you sent) and minimal records we keep as described in the Privacy Policy. Receipts entries are private and are not covered by any community-content license: we don't display, moderate, or analyze them.
10Suspension and termination
You can leave anytime by deleting your account in the app (see Section 11).
We can suspend or terminate access if you violate these Terms or our Community Guidelines. For most issues, we use a graduated approach: a warning, then escalating consequences, which can include losing chat privileges while keeping the rest of your access (your profile; crisis resources; Receipts, subject to your subscription per Section 5.7; reading Roots; and Settings), up to suspension or termination of your account. For serious violations, such as doxxing, surveillance or stalking, threats, harassment, misrepresentation of your eligibility (Section 3), or evading enforcement, we may suspend or terminate immediately.
If we terminate your account for a serious safety violation, we keep a minimal, scrubbed record (for our audit trail and to keep block lists working) rather than fully deleting it; in that case you cannot elect full deletion. Your store-managed subscription is handled through Apple or Google.
Appeals. If you think we got it wrong, email hello@steelmagnolias.app and we'll review it.
11Account deletion and data retention
You can delete your account from within the app at any time. Deletion is scheduled with a 30-day cancellation window (you can cancel within that window; after it passes, the deletion runs and can't be undone), and we can't shorten it. You choose one of two modes, anonymize (the default, which keeps your contributions under a neutral label) or full deletion, described in detail in the Privacy Policy under "How long we keep it," which is the authoritative description of what each mode does and what we retain (including required records that survive deletion). Accounts we terminate for a serious safety violation are scrubbed and retained rather than fully deleted, as described in Section 10.
12Warranty disclaimers
The Service is provided "as is" and "as available." To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, we disclaim all warranties, whether express, implied, or statutory, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, and any warranties arising from course of dealing or usage of trade.
We do not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, error-free, or secure; that defects will be corrected; or that the Service will meet your requirements.
Some jurisdictions don't allow the exclusion of certain warranties. If you're in one of those jurisdictions, some of these exclusions may not apply to you, and you may have additional rights under your local law.
13Limitation of liability
13.1 The cap on damages
To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, the total liability of Steel Magnolias LLC and our affiliates, officers, directors, employees, and agents to you for any and all claims arising from or related to these Terms or your use of the Service is limited to the greater of (a) the total amount you paid for your subscription in the 12 months preceding the claim, or (b) $200.
13.2 Types of damages excluded
To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, we are not liable for:
- Indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages
- Lost profits, lost revenue, lost data, lost goodwill, or business interruption
- Damages arising from your inability to use the Service, or from the conduct of other members
This applies whether the claim is based on contract, tort (including negligence), statute, or any other legal theory, and whether or not we were advised of the possibility of such damages.
13.3 What we don't disclaim
Nothing in these Terms limits or excludes liability for:
- Death or personal injury caused by our negligence
- Fraud, fraudulent misrepresentation, or willful injury by us
- Any violation of law, whether negligent or willful
- Any other liability that cannot be limited or excluded under applicable law, including under California Civil Code section 1668
13.4 Basic fairness
The limitations in this section are a fundamental part of the agreement between us. They apply even if a limited remedy fails of its essential purpose. If your jurisdiction doesn't allow these limitations, they apply to the maximum extent permitted by law, and you may have additional rights under your local law.
14Indemnification
You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Steel Magnolias LLC and our affiliates, officers, directors, employees, and agents from and against any claims, damages, losses, costs, and expenses (including reasonable attorney's fees) arising from or related to:
- Your violation of these Terms or our Community Guidelines
- Your violation of any law or the rights of any third party (including intellectual property, privacy, or publicity rights)
- Content you post or send through the Service
- Any false or misleading information you provide
- Your use of the Service for harassment, spam, or other unlawful purposes
This does not apply to the extent a claim arises from our own negligence, willful misconduct, or violation of law. This indemnification obligation survives termination of your account.
We reserve the right, at our own expense, to assume the exclusive defense and control of any matter for which you are required to indemnify us. If we do, you agree to cooperate with our defense.
15Disputes and governing law
15.1 Governing law
These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of California, without regard to its conflict of laws principles.
15.2 Informal resolution first
Before filing any formal claim or arbitration, both of us agree to try to resolve disputes informally. If you have a concern, please email us at hello@steelmagnolias.app with a description of the issue and the resolution you're looking for. We'll review it in good faith and respond within 30 days. We expect most issues can be resolved this way.
15.3 Binding arbitration for disputes not informally resolved
If we can't resolve a dispute informally, then except for the small claims exception below, any dispute, claim, or controversy arising out of or relating to these Terms or your use of the Service will be resolved by binding arbitration rather than in court.
Arbitration will be conducted by the American Arbitration Association (AAA) under its then-current Consumer Arbitration Rules. Either of us can initiate arbitration. The arbitrator will be a neutral person experienced with consumer disputes and will apply California law as identified in Section 15.1.
The arbitrator can award the same damages and relief that a court could. The arbitrator's decision will be final and binding, and judgment on it can be entered in any court with jurisdiction.
We will pay the arbitration filing and administrative fees that exceed what you would pay to file a lawsuit in court, unless the arbitrator determines your claim is frivolous.
If the AAA is unavailable or declines to administer the arbitration, you and Steel Magnolias will agree on another established arbitration provider that follows consumer-protective due-process standards, or a court may appoint one.
15.4 Small claims exception
You can bring any qualifying claim in small claims court in the jurisdiction where you live, rather than in arbitration, if you prefer. This option stays open to you.
15.5 No class actions
Any arbitration or claim under these Terms will be conducted only on an individual basis. You and Steel Magnolias both agree not to participate in a class action, class arbitration, or representative action against the other.
If the class action waiver in this Section 15.5 is found unenforceable as to a particular claim, then the agreement to arbitrate in Section 15.3 will be unenforceable as to that claim only, and that claim will proceed in the courts identified in Section 15.7. The remainder of these Terms, including Sections 15.1, 15.4, 15.6, 15.7, and 15.8, stays in full force.
15.6 Your 30-day opt-out right
You can opt out of the arbitration and class action waiver provisions in Sections 15.3 and 15.5 by emailing us at hello@steelmagnolias.app within 30 days of first accepting these Terms. Your email must include the email address on your account, your handle, and a clear statement that you want to opt out of arbitration. If you opt out, these specific sections won't apply to you, but the rest of these Terms still will.
15.7 Non-arbitrable claims venue
For any claim that is not subject to arbitration under this Section 15 (including claims for emergency relief, intellectual property protection, or claims a court determines are non-arbitrable), you and Steel Magnolias both consent to the exclusive jurisdiction of state and federal courts located in Marin County, California.
15.8 Emergency relief
Despite anything else in this section, either of us can ask a court to grant emergency relief (like a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction) to protect intellectual property rights or address urgent threats, without affecting the rest of this Section 15.
16Changes to these Terms
Steel Magnolias is an evolving service, and these Terms will change over time, to clarify language or to respond to product, legal, or operational changes.
Minor changes (clarifications, typo corrections, or changes that don't materially affect your rights or obligations) take effect when we post the updated Terms, and we'll update the "Last updated" date above.
Material changes are ones that meaningfully affect your rights or obligations. For material changes, we'll notify you at least 30 days before they take effect, with a plain-language summary of what's changing and why. Continued use of the Service after a material change takes effect means you accept the updated Terms; if you don't agree, you can stop using the Service and delete your account before then.
If a material change modifies the arbitration agreement or class action waiver in Section 15, you may reject that change by emailing us at hello@steelmagnolias.app before it takes effect (in which case the prior dispute-resolution terms continue to govern claims that arose before the change), or you may exercise a fresh 30-day opt-out under Section 15.6.
17Miscellaneous
Entire agreement. These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy and Community Guidelines, make up the complete agreement between you and Steel Magnolias about your use of the Service.
Severability. If any part of these Terms is found unenforceable, the rest stays in effect, and the unenforceable part will be modified to the smallest extent needed to make it enforceable, preserving the original intent as much as possible.
No waiver. If we don't enforce a provision right away, that doesn't waive our right to enforce it later.
Assignment. You can't assign these Terms without our written permission. We can assign them (for example, in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of our business) with notice to you.
Force majeure. Neither of us is liable for failure to perform when the failure is caused by circumstances beyond reasonable control: natural disasters, war, pandemics, infrastructure failures, government actions, or similar events.
No agency or employment relationship. These Terms don't create an employment, agency, partnership, joint venture, or franchise relationship between you and Steel Magnolias.
Notices. We may send notices to you by email or in the app. You can send notices to us at hello@steelmagnolias.app.
18How to contact us
For questions about these Terms, contact us at hello@steelmagnolias.app. For everything else, we're glad you're here.
Our mailing address:
Steel Magnolias LLC 2108 N ST #16274 Sacramento, CA 95816
19Acknowledgment
By creating an account and using Steel Magnolias, you acknowledge that you've read these Terms, that you understand them, and that you agree to be bound by them.
Last updated: 2026-07-21
Steel Magnolias LLC · 2108 N ST #16274 · Sacramento, CA 95816