Kids, Fido, and WFH: A Short Survival Guide

Welcome to the new new normal. Many of us are now WFH for the foreseeable future because of the new coronavirus. And now — our kids are home too?! Hello, double-duty!little kid holding crayons

The two largest school districts in the country have switched to remote learning in response to COVID-19 — which means a very new reality sets in this week for many working parents: double duty as a remote employee and educational supervisor.

There’s a BIG difference in working remotely from a quiet home and doing so in a household shared by rambunctious children and excitable pets — who hew to Murphy’s Law and somehow know how to show up at the worst possible moment. We know that this is a tough time, so we came up with these tips to help!

Make a plan for education and entertainment.

Your child’s school will likely be instituting remote learning. Some schools have sent home laptops and iPads that would normally stay at school, and some companies have made extra devices available for their employees to take home and use. Check if you don’t have a device for your child to use.

 

In case you need them — WiFi resources.

Not everyone is in the same economic boat. Some families may not have WiFi. To help, telecommunication companies are stepping up. “During this extraordinary time, it is vital that as many Americans as possible stay connected to the internet — for education, work, and personal health reasons,” said Dave Watson, Comcast Cable Chief Executive Officer.

 

Be flexible.

Coronavirus is taking work-life balance and throwing a hundred monkey wrenches at it. Balancing child care, home school supervision, and work is not for the faint of heart. You’re going to have to stretch in new and different ways to make things work. Try getting up before your kids to get some work in before the morning breakfast / walk the dog / feed the hamster / brush your teeth hustle begins. Alternately, clock some night owl hours to catch up if that works for you. Try working in shorter increments of time and taking advantage where you can. These are most unusual times, be kind to yourself, and be realistic about how much work you can actually get done.

Create boundaries.

Put a sign that says: “In a Meeting” on the door to the room where you’re working. That can help kids understand that you are busy and can’t be disturbed. If your space is more open plan, get creative, and put an “In a Meeting” sign on the back of your laptop. Create physical boundaries in whatever way possible to delineate work time and playtime.

Define work hours.

In this land of the new normal, the old rules won’t necessarily apply. Manage expectations. Have a frank conversation with your manager — and be realistic about what you can do. These are temporary measures in a time of crisis — do your best to meet work expectations, but also do your best to make sure your supervisors understand that you are pulling double or triple duty with kids at home. Perhaps you have a schedule of on and off-hours that don’t exactly map to a “typical” workday — with one or two hours of work occurring before breakfast, and another one or two after the kids have gone to bed. Get creative. We all need to work together.

Take breaks. Safely.

Here’s the deal: WFH with kid(s) in tow is a lot to handle, no matter how many arms you have. And now, with social distancing measures in place, it’s even harder to figure out how to structure the day between work and kids and recess and play. Are playdates ok? Outdoor playdates? Playgrounds? Parks? Dr. Eli Perencivich, an infectious disease doctor and epidemiologist, told The New York Times that organizing play dates around an isolated outdoor activity like biking or hiking, or having the kids run around a big, uncrowded park is a safer bet than the local playground. Other pediatricians are recommending virtual playdates, via Skype or FaceTime, instead.

Get in the groove.

The bottom line: get into a routine that works for you and your family. It’s going to be vital to plan ahead and schedule your days and keep a balance of work, planned school activities, and free-play. Things are constantly evolving — we have to stay limber and roll with the theoretical punches.

About the author.
An award-winning creator and digital health, wellness, and lifestyle content strategist — Karina writes, edits, and produces compelling content across multiple platforms — including articles, video, interactive tools, and documentary film. Her work has been featured on MSN Lifestyle, Apartment Therapy, Goop, Psycom, Pregnancy & Newborn, Eat This Not That, thirdAGE, and Remedy Health Media digital properties.

One Working Mom’s Perspective During COVID-19

Here we are, in the midst of a worldwide pandemic, and I — like many of you — have a lot of “macro anxiety” about our community, our nation, our world as we know it. I’m freaking out a little on the inside (and sometimes the outside), but I’m also hyper-aware that I have to stay sane for my colleagues and teammates at work, and — most importantly — for my family at home, including my two young children.

My husband and I are now both working from home, full-time, and we are so grateful that we have the types of jobs where we CAN remain employed and work remotely. Many, I know, do not have this option. And there are two of us — those without spouses to help are in a far more difficult situation. While we are trying to keep our jobs as uninterrupted as possible, we are also expected to put on our homeschool teacher hats and keep our 1st and 3rd graders busy with enriching activities — overseeing schoolwork or setting them up on apps or websites to work through various parts of their curriculum. Like many of you, we are a little lost.

Don’t worry — this is NOT yet another well-meaning aggregation of activities and websites to keep your little ones busy, but rather a real perspective from someone who is also trying to adjust to this new way of getting through our days.

Here are a few of the things I’m trying with my family — who knows what will work and what won’t, but we can all figure it out together:

  1. Minimize unnecessary meetings. It’s tough, but I’ve asked my team to hold off on scheduling phone calls where decisions can be made on Slack/email/elsewhere. It’s just HARD to have quiet in a house full of kids and a barking dog and the UPS delivery person — unless it’s ESSENTIAL to have a phone call, push to Slack/email. I’ve tried to be fully transparent with my team, so they can understand my work-from-home-reality, and so I can understand theirs. Dogs will bark. Kids will interrupt. Roommates will be roommates.
  2. Start time blocking. My husband and I plan to review our upcoming schedules each evening, and figure out when one of us can be on “kid duty,” while the other takes calls/handles work that requires focus/gets to be alone in an office with the door closed. The minimization of meetings will help this, but we’ve also quickly learned that we can’t expect the kids to be patient and quiet when we’re on the phone. So, one person has to pay attention to the kids while the other tends to their work. It’s just reality.
  3. Get outdoors. We’re making sure the kids go outside once every 2 hours. They can’t take walks or walk the dog on their own, so we have to join. We are trying to institute a no phone policy on these outings — just take the time, breathe the fresh air, let the emails pile up. It’s good for the kids; it’s good for us.
  4. Give the kids a break. Speaking only for our kids here, but this is hard on them. They love school and they love their teachers and friends. This is a huge adjustment — one none of us wanted. They are going to be whiney, they are going to fight, they are going to frustrate each other and us. So, we’re telling ourselves (repeatedly, honestly) that it’s okay if they are upset or not perfectly behaved. This isn’t easy. This WILL pass, but we have to get through it day by day.
  5. Do what you can! I am trying to force myself to accept that my days will be interrupted, truncated, unscheduled. This is reality. All you can do is what you can — as much as you can — during the day. Try to make yourself sign off at a normal time — be present in the evening/during nighttime routines. Speaking for myself, I will need to work after kids’ bedtimes and before wake-ups, but it will give me some peace of mind knowing that I’ve dedicated a few hours to uninterrupted family time so we can talk about all that we managed to do that day.

We are all figuring this out together, and some people in this community may have more experience than I do. But in the meantime, stay safe and remember that our Creative Circle family will keep working on your behalf. Even if our workspace is loud and sometimes messy.

About the author.
Katherine Forbes is the VP of Marketing at Creative Circle. She is also now a part-time homeschool teacher to her 8 year old daughter and 6 year old son.

COVID-19: Find yourself working remotely? Learn the ropes.

MARCH 12, 2020 — We are all living under the growing threat of COVID-19 hitting the United States full force — and one of the ways it will impact us is how we work. Does your team have to make the jump to fully remote work? Here’s how to keep things on track and running as smoothly as possible.woman working on laptop in apartment
Many companies have already instituted work from home policies, among them Apple, Google, Facebook, and Amazon. As things progress, we are looking at the possible mass disruption of normal work patterns, communication, and team collaboration. But as anxiety and uncertainty mount around how the novel coronavirus will impact the economy, some strategies can be put in place to help ensure that teams can still collaborate successfully and keep business as-usual-as-possible.

Here are some strategies you can use to help ensure that teams can continue to collaborate effectively and keep projects on track.

  1. Culture is set from the top down.

    Leaders, it’s time to lead. The CEO needs to be present online, using the same tools and channels that the rest of the organization is using. Communicating proactively and engaging in conversation is vital. Be available. Be approachable. Be human. Don’t just show your professional side; this is a time for vulnerability and strength to walk hand in hand. Be a cheerleader. Give praise. Encourage. Digitally high-five people across your organization. When the leader has fully donned their remote-work-digital-hat — everyone else will be more ready to follow.

  2. Set goals and review roles.

    Going from a co-located work environment to one in which a whole company is working remotely is a sudden change that calls for clarity around goals and roles. Look at this as an opportunity to revisit project or team objectives, individual roles, and how each person contributes to the company. Explain in simple language the mission of the company and what you are collectively trying to accomplish. Be crystal clear about roles to help your team understand whom to turn to if they have a question. From there — make detailed goals and objectives. Why? Employees are more aligned when they can get behind a clear, delineated vision.

  3. Welcome to the new normal.

    A new age brings with it new challenges. Having an entire company work from home may create new distractions and increase the potential for miscommunication and misunderstandings. Here is where some old-fashioned advice intersects with the digital age: get to know each other.

  4. Barking dogs, crying babies, noisy trucks. Time for the nickel tour.

    Have team members give short virtual tours of their home workspaces and share what possible distractions might exist. Think barking dogs, crying babies, loud traffic. Doing this will help colleagues develop personal context for each team member’s environment, and help foster understanding of each other’s circumstances. Here’s why this matters: it’s easy to misinterpret behavior when there’s no context for it. For example, someone on your team may be speaking up less than usual during online meetings. Is it disengagement? Or is the team member mindfully using mute more frequently than others to muffle the constant stream of traffic outside? Ask, don’t assume.

  5. Hello, home office / living room / kitchen table.

    It’s key to acknowledge the wide variety of home circumstances. Many folks on your team may be working from non-traditional workspaces, particularly in urban areas, where younger workers may live with multiple roommates. If all the roommates find themselves working remotely as a result of COVID-19, there may be various people walking, talking, typing in the background. If this proves to be too disruptive during online calls, consider making flex work arrangements so video calls occur during quieter times.

  6. Be the architect of digital trust.

    Leaders need to be open and authentic. Culture flows from the top — and successful collaboration is grounded in trust. Remote work removes the physical connectedness that often helps anchor trust; cultivating it now is more important than ever. Issues will arise. Deal with them. Now is not the time to hide from problems. Handling things as proactively as possible is key. You are the architect in charge of building digital trust — be caring, compassionate, and diplomatic, and you will succeed.

  7. Gauge capacity and capabilities.

    New tasks will arise during this crisis, and members of your team may be pulled in different directions. Let them know that they can count on you to help them navigate new claims on their time. Think about where there might be skill redundancies and how to tap into outside resources if necessary (Creative Circle is a great resource!). You may need to move people from one project to another — understanding the layered experience of individuals will help make that process simpler and more streamlined. If you do have to re-prioritize goals, make sure the changing objectives are communicated to your team — and be mindful of who gets the new assignments.

  8. Curate a digital company culture.

    The land of spontaneous connection in a physical space may be on sabbatical for some time. People accustomed to being together in a physical space may feel lonely — which can give rise to a dip in productivity and engagement. So how to cultivate company culture in these remote work times? Create channels (hello Slack, Google Hangouts, Trello, and more) for online expressions of your company’s unique culture. Work anniversaries. Jokes. Celebrations. Personal interests. Pet photos. Think about it like a digital water cooler, where team members can “run” into each other and connect on a more human level.

  9. Use the right digital tools for the job. And stick to them.

    Decide what tools best serve the needs of your organization — and then stick to them. Text. WhatsApp. Slack. Trello. Hangouts. Zoom. Skype. And so many more. Create a system so that you can have copious, clear communication. Use chats to sidebar with other team members during online meetings. Figure out what works for your organization and embrace with zeal.

  10. Cultivate remote compassion.

    Hosting a birthday celebration or buying delicious cookies to celebrate a job well done will need to be translated for remote work times. Pass along kind messages digitally. Consider sending a card, gift basket, or flowers to someone that deserves (or needs) it. And if it fits with your corporate culture, consider sharing images of the gifts via one of your “water cooler” channels (see #8) for other team members to see.

  11. Keep it regular.

    Create set times for your team to meet virtually. Keeping regularly scheduled meetings means team members can plan around it, mitigating possible distractions if they are able. It’s easier to cancel a meeting that is not needed than it is to call for off-the-cuff meetings that may exclude folks who may need to make special arrangements to meet.

  12. New resources in these new times.

    Seismic priority shifts may require you to onboard new team members. Yes — it’s not ideal to do so while everyone is working remotely. Here’s what can help: genuinely take the time to introduce new team members formally; by doing so, you will help build trust. Make sure to focus on both the personal and professional — now is the time to really humanize your team as more normative modes of connection (read: happy hour) may not be available.

COVID-19 will cause disruption — it already has. But in challenge lies opportunity. Remote work is not a problem to surmount, but rather a potential business advantage. We are now a digital world — how lucky we are that work for so many of us can actually continue because of it. Use this time to uncover new ways to work as a team and take a close look at old beliefs that will almost certainly benefit you in the days and years to come.

About the author.
An award-winning creator and digital health, wellness, and lifestyle content strategist — Karina writes, edits, and produces compelling content across multiple platforms — including articles, video, interactive tools, and documentary film. Her work has been featured on MSN Lifestyle, Apartment Therapy, Goop, Psycom, Pregnancy & Newborn, Eat This Not That, thirdAGE, and Remedy Health Media digital properties.

Seven Things to Try When You’re Having a Creative Block

As creatives, we all have times when a design concept doesn’t quite come together or the words just don’t flow. In the workplace, you often have to push through those creative blocks at a quicker pace than you do on a personal project. Try out a few new methods to replenish those creative reserves.

Get Some Space

Once you’re staring at a blank screen for too long or going down a rabbit hole seeking elusive perfection before submission, know when to walk away. If you have the luxury of getting feedback from a colleague, this is the time to ask.

Some people try to slog through, but as frustration and stress mount, you’re less likely to solve the challenge or to get unstuck. Try to switch gears and return to the work with fresh eyes. Having a small win by finishing another task, like checking in with another team or sending that invoice, can shift your mindset.

A day off a project, if possible, will generally provide an opportunity for copywriters to catch a few lingering typos or the awkward phrases missed when reading the same piece over and over again.

It’s tempting to use this pause to check your phone or watch some cute cat videos. But a break in screen time can help you more effectively reset (and give your eyes a needed break). You could read a magazine, stretch, get a cup of coffee, chat with a colleague, tidy up your desk, or even fold laundry if you’re working remotely.

Work in Spurts

Better yet, learn to work with your brain’s natural productivity cycles. Our ultradian cycles alternate between 90 to 120 minutes of high frequency brain activity and 20 minute periods of less intensity when we’re awake. If you time your periods of deep concentration accordingly, you’ll find that it’s far easier to work through creative blocks.

Get Physical

We’ve all heard that sitting is the new smoking, and even standing desks have their issues. Coupled with feeling stuck on a particular project, it could be time to get physical.

Moving around or going for a walk is great, but the trick is to get out of your head and to feel more centered in your body. More intense physical exercise, like going for a run or hitting the gym on your lunch hour, could provide that shift. Releasing endorphins in the body reduces the stress of a creative block, and it’s not just exercise that does that — eating foods like chocolate and having a good belly laugh works too.

Get Centered

Ironically, another way to release those endorphins is by sitting still and getting centered. Meditation has a host of benefits for your health and well-being, but by learning to focus on the present moment, it is often possible to work through a creative block. Being in the moment clears your mind of other distractions, enabling you to address the task at hand.

In the longer term, a dedicated meditation practice can profoundly increase concentration. If you’re just getting started, the free app Insight Timer has an enormous library of guided meditations of varying lengths, tracks the amount of time that you meditate, and offers paid course content if you want to work on specific subjects.

Opt for a Change of Scenery

For many copywriters, writing is thinking, and much of that process doesn’t come naturally in front of the screen. If you have the opportunity to walk around, or to visit a gallery or city park, you can often work out the structure of a piece or resolve a lingering challenge by passively thinking about it as you wander.

The health benefits of walking in nature are vast, and creative types have long relied on nature to reset or inspire creativity. Composer John Cage famously taught mycology (mushroom identification) to his music composition students as a means of getting them to look at the world differently. If you can, getting out in nature is an effective way to get through a creative block for a design or concept.

Switch Disciplines

Copywriters might find it helpful to use an adult coloring book when faced with writer’s block, while some visual creatives enjoy reading, socializing, or dancing. “Live music usually inspires me, though I am a 2D artist,” says Mandy Fraser, a painter, illustrator, and graphic designer living in New Bedford, Massachusetts.

Use Prompts

Other creatives use prompts to work through a slump. The Surrealists used games like the exquisite corpse and exercises such as automatic writing, which many artists and writers still employ. Joie Rey Cohen, a visual artist based in San Francisco, relies on online prompts to drive creativity and get unstuck. Some excellent suggestions include:

Similarly, writing something lighthearted and fun might provide a needed break when you’re writing a lot of heavy pharmaceutical or financial content.

Jess Powers writes about marketing, food, and wellness. She has experience in nonprofit communications and emergency management. Follow her @foodandfury.

For designers, this is more important than a fat paycheck

The #1 criteria for product designers is actually a strong design culture. That’s right. It’s not a higher salary or oodles of vacation time. Rather, employees want to feel like they’re a part of something bigger than their 9 to 5. They want exciting, meaningful work, and the freedom and agency to solve it in their own way. I mean, at the end of the day, don’t we all?

“You can’t be a successful unicorn hunter if you’re going to bring people into a horrible culture. You have to create an environment that creatives want to be a part of.”

Rachel Kobetz, SVP Head of Experience Design at Bank of America

Cultivating a strong design culture

So how do you know if you have one? Or if you don’t, how do you create one? The answer isn’t hard to grasp, but actually putting it into practice requires a steady flow of intention, because the unfortunate truth is: Most companies unwittingly stifle creativity by prioritizing process and politics over people and passions.

Let’s start with what it is. IDEO describes culture as “an environment that makes it possible for people to work together to come up with innovative products and ideas.” In other words, it’s a human-centered approach that sparks collaboration and invites innovation, or, you know, the creative vibe.

So a strong design culture must understand and respect the needs of the people who work there — beyond what they contribute to the company’s bottom line.

Good UX is good culture

Most of us are familiar with how good UX can bring satisfaction, and maybe even delight us along the way. Or a bad one (hello Ikea store layouts?) can conjure up dread and dismay.

So even though companies focus on building products and creating design that provide an intuitive and friendly UX, many fail to apply that same methodology to their own organization.

How does the employee as the user navigate through the experience of working at your company? These considerations should encompass:

  1. The physical environment. Is the lighting and furniture thoughtfully considered? Is the path between desks or to the coffee machine intuitive and pleasant? Can designers choose the sound level they’re subjected to? Because how the office is designed can directly influence:
  2. Personal interactions. Are there dedicated spaces for collaboration or serendipitous conversations? Can employees escape to a quiet room to work if they need to?
  3. The company’s values. For this, I defer to the top five behaviors IDEO values in design-driven organizations:
    • Curiosity. Individuals at a human-centered company can ask lots of questions, and should. So it’s important to have a system in place that captures and analyzes those questions, so they, in turn, can inform the design process.
    • Frequent experimentation. IDEO discovered that “teams that explore and iterate five or more solutions at once produce 50 percent more successful launches.” So it’s critical to let designers test several ideas at the same time.
    • Cross-team collaboration. Creating teams across disciplines can help employees address the same problem from different, and unexpected angles.
    • Build storytelling into the practice. Ideas can get lost in the back and forth shuffle between teams. But when a project or design lead can take ownership of an idea and develop its narrative to generate momentum and excitement, more ideas make it to launch.
    • More is more. Generating a multitude of ideas is a daily habit at the organization. This lets teams iterate prototypes and respond to feedback quickly, so more products can enter the market stream and have a chance to succeed.

Amplify your organization’s culture

We all know what happens when there’s all work and no play. For designers, designing is play, but what they do for work isn’t often the only thing that defines them. To this end, companies might consider launching “culture amplification projects” to showcase the unique talents of their employees. Whether it’s a storytelling night, a niche podcast, a company zine, or a special event that lets employees feel seen, heard, and validated.

These can also help employees to know each other better, or identify other talents that may inform their work.

Connect with the design world

Creatives (just like non-creatives) need community for inspiration, validation, and emotional support.

At work, this can come in the form of Slack or informal meetups. Offline, leadership communities like Design Leadership Forum (DLF), Within (for women in design), and Design Leadership Camp can help designers tap into the wider community and advance their design practice.

Start with the right people

Of course, a good design culture in its essence comes down to the people involved. Getting the right people means hiring already motivated people who resonate with the company’s values and are invested in the company’s success.

“Great companies don’t hire skilled people and motivate them. They hire already motivated people and inspire them.”

Simon Sinek, Author of Start With Why

Looking to find the right people for your teams? Well, we might have a name or hundred. Give us a call or shoot us an email. We’ve already started the search for you.

About the author.
Héloïse Chung is writing the great American science fiction blockbuster in the moments between her day job as a copywriter and creative director. Non-screen activities include rock-climbing and making ceramics.

website: heloisechung.com
twitter: @hzla_de_encanta
instagram: @heloise_chung

Are Freelancers More Politically Active Than Traditional Workers?

The freelance economy is B-O-O-M-I-N-G. The American dream is being recrafted for the 21st century. The farms, fields, and cubicles of yesteryear are giving way to co-working spaces, laptops, and digital nomadism.

During the past five years — despite a job market offering more full-time jobs — Americans are increasingly choosing to freelance. In fact, more than one in three — or 35% — of Americans freelanced in 2018. According to a recent study called Freelancing in America 2019, the most comprehensive study to date of the independent workforce, there are 56.7 million Americans doing freelance work today — up 3.7 million since 2014. The study, which was commissioned by the Freelancer’s Union, looked at more than 6,000 workers and found that workers are spending more than 1 billion hours per week freelancing — up from 998 million hours in 2015. By all measures, the freelance economy is in ascendancy — and with the numbers of independent workers growing, ripple effects will be felt across multiple sectors.

So what does this mean in terms of political engagement?

One voter segment you scarcely hear anything about is freelancers. This isn’t surprising as most independent workers have been seen as economic outsiders — less politically neat to categorize than middle-class USA and less obviously visible than the vaunted “one percent” — presenting a bit of a pickle to politicians seeking definitive stances in the more classically delineated corners of the workplace economy.

New York is fertile ground for freelancers — think designers, stylists, musicians, writers, nannies, filmmakers, bookkeepers—which helps explain why it’s the home of the Freelancer’s Union. “Freelancing in America report demonstrates the remarkable growth of the freelance workforce over the past five years,” said Caitlin Pearce, Executive Director of the Freelancer’s Union. Independent workers are fast becoming a backbone of the American economy, but they face unique challenges. Issues like affordable and accessible health care, retirement, higher pay, and workforce development training to update skills are particularly germane to freelancers. And with the independent workforce growing, attention to these concerns is on the rise.

One of the key findings in the Freelancing in America study is that freelancers are more politically active than traditional workers.

The world of independent workers is broader than you think and less homogenous. But there are some things that connect the independent working class — greater vulnerability to outside economic forces. Just slight shifts to the economy can have outsize effects on freelancers, which is perhaps why independent workers vote at a far higher rate than the general population. But the study also found that most freelancers don’t feel well-represented by their elected politicians. Politicians and policy makers take note: a whopping 72% of freelancers surveyed said that they’d be willing to cross party lines to support candidates that advocate for freelancers’ interests. Freelancers are “more politically active than the general population” — shared Pearce — “and they’re looking for policymakers to take notice.”

Here’s where organizations like Freelancer’s Union come in. As the largest and fast-growing organization representing the millions of independent American workers across the United States, it provides its 450,000+ members a voice through political advocacy, community, and benefits. As the ranks of freelance workers grows, so does the political impact of the non-traditional worker — and the need for representation. Due in part to the efforts of the Freelancer’s Union, some key reforms were pushed through, including the Unincorporated Business Tax reform and successful advocacy for new health care models that fit the needs of independent workers. And in New York City, reforms provide freelancers unparalleled protections from non-payment.

Freelancers could be key to the upcoming Presidential elections. Here’s why.

The study showed political activity as being 18 points higher than for traditional workers. 51% of freelancers self-identified as politically active versus 33% of non-freelancers — and more than seven in 10 value support for freelancer interests over party loyalty. This means that to win freelancer votes, candidates will need to focus on making health care more affordable and accessible, along with supporting higher pay and plans for retirement savings.

Freelancers are aware that politicians are ignoring the needs of freelancers, who don’t have the safety net of programs like unemployment that might ease financial stress. We have yet to see any national-level politicians focusing on this growing constituency, but with half the population forecast to be freelancing by 2027, independent workers will be much harder to ignore going forward.

About the author.
An award-winning creator and digital health, wellness, and lifestyle content strategist — Karina writes, edits, and produces compelling content across multiple platforms — including articles, video, interactive tools, and documentary film. Her work has been featured on MSN Lifestyle, Apartment Therapy, Goop, Psycom, Pregnancy & Newborn, Eat This Not That, thirdAGE, and Remedy Health Media digital properties.