Once upon a time, there was a shy, creative little girl growing up on the north shore of Long Island. She was always painting, writing, singing, and acting but never felt quite good enough. Insecurity, combined with the well-meaning messaging that the only safe career choice for her was a doctor or a lawyer, she took her aptitude for thinking and writing to law school.
In law school, oscillating between internships at law firms and design showrooms, she could not silence the voice in her head that craved a creative life. She was terrified to fall on her face.
She followed her safe path until she met someone who gave her the confidence to pursue her true passions. She learned to ask people about their stories without knowing how to find what she was meant to do. She became a hobbyist networker, cold-calling strangers with interesting jobs to pick their brains. Shockingly, they all said yes. She met people in fundraising, museum curation, fashion, interior design, education, and beyond. Each offered a unique story with lessons in serendipity and hard work.
She took a job in legal public relations to pay rent. It was 2010, the dawn of social media as a tool in the marketer’s toolkit. Energized by the disruption of this industry, she determined to be a part of the change. She entered digital marketing through a combination of boldness and luck. In creative digital agencies, she learned consumer marketing and helped major corporations like Target and Unilever create community through content. She took risks, moving into roles at the intersection of technology and media to think about how big corporations evolve their businesses for a modern cross-platform lifestyle.
But in 2018, she set out on a new course when her real life intersected with her digital life. That year, as she embraced the scary challenges of pregnancy and motherhood, her focus shifted inward. Suddenly, she felt inspired and creatively fulfilled by the manual labor of raising children, or as she called them, Floofs. She thrived in the creative challenge of caretaking, filling her days with music, food play, and theatrical recitations of Green Eggs and Ham.
It was all fun and games until it wasn’t. In the Winter of 2022, she found herself exploding from the pressure of 24/7 pandemic parenting. Every individual pandemic story is alike in that there are highs and lows. At her low, in a season of constant quarantines, she dyed her hair blue and then flaming red. This lady was on fire–and this lady was me!
A year ago, I decided to change my life. Lady and the Floofs launched in June 2022 as a creative experiment. It started with two personal challenges: 1) host one baby class; 2) write one baby book – and tell the story.
I set out to discover what might happen if I stopped caring what other people thought and put it all out there on the field.
I created the character of The Lady, a quirky and bohemian British caretaker of Floofs. The Lady teaches Floofs of all ages to discover this sometimes scary, wonderful world in print, in-person, and online. Her illustrated songbook, “It’s Hard to be a Baby,” is a baby’s lament that calls for compassion for Floofs as they embark on the difficult journey of growing up. Sharing her path from fearful Floof to bold Lady, the book encourages trial (especially of food) through joy and empathy.
And try things we did. We threw spaghetti and flour from all corners of New York’s Tristate Area. We built cars out of cucumbers and planted enchanted dinosaur broccoli forests. We finger-painted with triggering ingredients like onions and mushrooms. We planted seedlings in the ground and ate leafy greens off the stalk. We learned where our food came from and ate without protest because it was all in good fun.
This summer, I begin a new challenge in this grand creative experiment; to write.
Reflecting on my first year of Floof, I have a lot to say. Here at Westchester County Mom, I want to share my learnings from my year of yes. From creativity and reinvention to family, food, and growing up, I will share stories from my table to yours. I do hope you are here for it.
