it feels appropriate to start at the real beginning of this writing journey.

i started writing to have a creative outlet the summer of 2023 with no real intention of trying to make money from it. i found the Motherly Collective, a space where moms can share their stories, when i was chest deep in exclusively pumping for my second daughter and almost desperate to document how badly i wanted to quit. why? not sure, maybe i thought that it might resonate with another mom or validate what i was feeling.

Motherly’s collective isn’t paid, but i wrote a number of pieces for it until one day i got an email, out of the blue, asking if i wanted to try freelancing for them.

while i went to school for journalism (and even changed my name because i thought elliott, my middle name at the time, was a stronger pen name), it had been 15+ years since writing anything with a hed/dek/meta titles and descriptions. needless to say, i felt way out of my league and almost told the kind editor who was giving me a shot that i just couldn’t do it.

but after some googling to remind myself what the terms meant, and with some helpful editing, my first piece went live march 20 of this year. i still had no clue what i was doing (and still don’t) but the thrill of getting paid to write made me curious about the freelancing world. it’s been a wild ride and i still feel like i have no idea what i’m doing but i’m doing it, and having a lot of fun doing it, too.