This Is The Number 1 Reason So Many People Hate To Exercise - "Whether it's 30 minute bursts or multihour Saturday sessions, in a dark studio or under an open sky, breathless and high-intensity or gentle and graceful, what I've learned from all my years of sweating is that the best way to do it is however you actually want to do it."
POPSUGAR Fitness, November 2015
Grey Matter Marketing Monthly Newsletter - I write the monthly newsletter for this medical device marketing agency. This involves distilling information from several news articles as well as the agency's blog into concise, witty snippets.
Grey Matter Marketing
How The French Are Reminding Us Not To Let Tragedy Kill Our Joie De Vivre - "It flies in the face of what many of us would expect following such a mass tragedy. We expect civic shutdown, life on hold, everything dulled under the weight of loss. Americans needed Mayor Rudy Giuliani to go on Saturday Night Live and give us permission to laugh again after the September 11 attacks."
Verily, November 2015
Wikipedia Has A Misogyny Problem - "But in an ironic sleight of hand, the Internet—the shining beacon of the future—has created... fertile ground for a kind of decades-old misogyny that would never fly in most professional settings in 2015. The trick, of course, is anonymity."
Verily, October 2015
Learning To Be A Good Listener Could Help Save Someone's Life - "All these years later, I still hold on to that advice from my crisis hotline supervisor. I still remind myself, often, that I don’t have to fill the silence. Quiet recognition is effective not just when responding to a stranger in crisis but also—and perhaps, even more so—in our closest relationships."
Verily, September 2015
Ashley Madison's Hacking Revealed a Troubling Trend in Modern Marriage - "If it’s the latter—that is to say, if the majority of the approximately 37 million subscribers were hoping to have an affair without negatively impacting their marriages as opposed to committing adultery as a marital exit strategy—it seems that there might be a quiet cultural shift in how we view marriage, what’s allowed, and what we’re entitled to."
Verily, August 2015
I Have Enough, I Am Enough - "It's the practice of saying those words "I have enough" that is the transformative part. The more I say them, the more I am a person who has enough. Not just clothes or bookshelf knick-knacks, but the stuff that matters, too. When I think about my life as being full and complete—not lacking, not half full, not a stepping stone to a bigger, better life—my relationship with the whole world changes. The people that I love are enough. The money that we make is enough. My body is enough. I have enough."
Coffee + Crumbs, July 2015
The Secret That Helped Me Overcome Self-Doubt in My Career -"No one really knows what they're doing. That's the secret. And once you know it, you are suddenly, miraculously, put on a level playing field with the very people who intimidate you most. You are suddenly qualified. Qualified to be here, to make the choices, to call the shots. The secret is that the willingness itself - to show up, to make the choice, to call the shot - is oftentimes the greatest qualification of all."
Verily Magazine, July 2015
Allow Us To Introduce This Beautiful Alternative To Black Friday Sales - "It looks like retailers will be facing some stiff competition this Black Friday, from the most unlikely source. While online vendors have staked their claims on “Cyber Monday,” and mom-and-pop joints have thrown their hats into the ring with “Small Business Saturday,” Mother Nature herself is making a play for your attention in 2015. Well, kind of."
Verily, November 2015
Uh-Oh Feelings - "He was discovering his own limits. They were still far beyond what I felt comfortable with -- still too high, too risky, too precarious -- but for the first time, I saw him understand that there was a reason to stop beyond my admonitions. He found his uh-oh feeling."
Coffee + Crumbs, November 2015
Why This Successful Model Quit Instagram In A Bold Stand Against Fakeness - "What we do know is this: Essena O’Neill just got a new job. She pivoted. She’s reinventing herself, as entrepreneurs often do. And you know, hats off to her for that. She’s 19 and gorgeous now, but perhaps she’s looking to her future and realizing that relying on that alone is an unlikely way to sustain a career. Or perhaps she really just can’t stand the social media dog-and-pony show for one more day, and she needs a new gig."
Verily, November 2015
Hang 20? Hilarious Photos of California's Best Surfing Dogs - "Learning to surf can be a daunting endeavor. If you’re lucky enough to have an experienced friend guide you through the gear choices and give you some tips so you don’t look like a total kook, you’ve still got to contend with variable weather, wave conditions, and you better acquire a taste for saltwater. Just in case all of that wasn’t intimidating enough, now you have to face the fact that there are dogs out there who can probably handle a wave better than you."
Outside Online, October 2015
This 13-Year-Old Just Reminded Us How Badass It Is To Play Like A Girl - "
When girls play sports, they learn the power of their bodies. They learn that their bodies are capable of great things—of surprising strength, speed, and grace. They learn about wounds and healing. They learn what it feels like to have your heart beating so hard that you are momentarily deafened by the sound of it, able only to hear exactly how alive you are in that moment."
Verily, October 2015
The New Hello Barbie Doll Wants To Be Your Daughter's BFF, But I Hope It Won't Be -"These days I am a successful professional and a champion for positive body image for girls everywhere, but you won’t find me chiming in on the conversation about the negative influence that Barbie has been for girls. I love Barbie. I think of her with fondness and nostalgia, and I forgive her for that ridiculous body and the whole “math class is tough” debacle. Barbie and I are friends. But Barbie was never my best friend. Without a conversational Hello Barbie at my disposal back in the 1980s, I was forced to have real human friends."
Verily, October 2015
The Glitter And The Glue- "Sometimes I worry that because I’m not the fun one that I matter less to them. I don’t expect them to appreciate all that the glue does right now – they are preschoolers for crying out loud – but I worry that the ways in which I show my love might get missed. I worry that I’m fading into the background sometimes, no flashy Lego buildings or fart jokes to attract their spotlight."
Coffee + Crumbs, August 2015
When Love Redeems - "The question was so big that it seemed like it should be rhetorical, but I didn’t have that luxury. If I was going to be this child’s mother, I actually needed to know: Can someone recover from this? Is it recoverable, to be “given up,”to have no bloodline, to spend the first two weeks of life without a name?"
Coffee + Crumbs, May 2015
How Bikram Yoga Has Helped Me Have An Open Mind - "A crazy thing happened to me in that yoga studio: I stopped competing. I wasn’t thinking about how I was performing compared to the person next to me, or what the score was, or what my next move would look like. I heeded the instructor’s encouragement to stay in the moment, focus only on how my body felt, and let go of the rest. I was, as they say, present."
REI.com, November 2015
News & Review Client Publications - I am a regular contributor for these advertorial/native content pieces. Assignments involve interviewing multiple sources, extrapolating the interview into an article that fits within the client's desired story arc, and meeting tight print deadlines.
News & Review
Porter Scott Attorneys - I managed the launch of this re-branded website, including working with 40+ attorneys to write and edit all copy throughout the site. Additionally, I write and edit the firm's e-blast and news communications.
www.porterscott.com
This Family's Adoption Story Will Fill Your Heart With Joy - "I am just one of two mothers he can claim; his biological mother gave him life, and I am teaching him how to live it. And in the gap between her and me, there is a whole village of people who have stepped in to help write Noah's story. He is better for it. I am, too."
POPSUGAR, September 2015
How I Found My Fun Again - "While I can’t exactly plot out a map detailing the route I took to find my fun again, I can see the starting point and today’s “you are here” point with breathtaking clarity, and what matters most is this: I started in a place of scarcity, and today I’m in a place of abundance."
Coffee + Crumbs, September 2015
What Caitlyn Jenner's Transition Means for Women - "Caitlyn's question about her transition to womanhood not only speaks to how common these feelings of self-doubt are, but it also begs a broader question: is there a "right" way to be a woman? Inherent in the wondering if we're getting it right is an assertion that there is, in fact, a right. But where did we get this idea? Who told us that there was a right way? Or let us believe that there was a wrong way, for that matter?"
POPSUGAR, July 2015
We Need More Role Models Like the U.S. Women's Soccer Team - "It was a confusing time to be a teenage girl in America. There were women (and, in the case of Britney Spears, girls) to emulate all around us. Title IX had been in effect our whole lives, and our dads had signed us all up for rec. league soccer when we were 6. Baywatch was at the height of its popularity, and the boys we had crushes on had posters of Pamela Anderson above their beds. In both the best and worst way possible, we could aspire to be anything we wanted to be."
Verily Magazine, July 2015