From Kitty Snyder, designer and writer:

I was once a purposeful but meandering fish with varying sea changes, as the currents carried me over time: as the daughter of a successful Fisher Price toy designer, then as a young English grad and songwriter, then as a longtime commercial and video producer, and now as a professional designer and copywriter. But in retrospect, it’s all been under the same sunlit surface: storytelling. 

After a solo trip to Italy just weeks before the pandemic, I returned invigorated and wanting to tell stories even more deeply. I realized that as an empath, the practice of UX/UI is a natural fit in my career. I find my happiest work is with projects that make a difference: mental health issues, DEI, environmental issues. I also believe we can find purpose in just about anything; we just have to dig profoundly and breathe life into it.

What is my ideal project? One whereby we discover your unique story together, and I help bring your brand and journey to life. Web design, branding, presentation decks, blogs, marketing design, copywriting/editing; anything using captivating imagery and words. And with my background in producing, I pride myself in being a great communicator during each project.

Thank you, Creative Circle; it’s an honor to be on your roster!

The Evolution of Feminism 

What does it mean to be a feminist today? We have a long way from the days of suffragettes and Rosie the Riveter. Of bra burning and free love. From first wave to third wave to intersectionality, we’ve learned lessons and won victories along the way. Women in the United States won the vote (1920), can open our own bank accounts (1960s), and are recognizing the intersections of class, race, privilege, and gender identity in this struggle for… what exactly? 

The issue with broad movements is that without a specific ask, it’s hard to know whether you identify with the movement or not. The general understanding of feminism changed sometime in the ‘80s and ‘90s. Suddenly, radical thinkers were out and corporate feminism was in, although it didn’t get that name until later. We were no longer trying to change the system, but please let us have a slice of the patriarchal pie, thank you. 

Now, much of feminism is capitalist. We have T-shirts and slogans and very expensive scarves, saying words that have been stripped of their meaning, their authors nothing but relics in the wind: 

The Future Is Female | Girl Power | Unite Women | Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History | Woman Up | Smash the Patriarchy | Sisterhood | We Should All Be Feminists 

Corporate Feminism 

Corporate feminism says that anything that puts women in power is feminist. We’ve waited long enough for a seat at the table; now it’s time to do whatever it takes to get more of us there. This is the feminism of SheEOs and the #girlboss, but is replacing men with a fair share of women really the way to an equitable society? 

That wasn’t a real question. Of course it’s not. Capitalism may have coopted #feminism, but you can’t smash the patriarchy by simply throwing matriarchs in men’s places of power. The point is not to pull up a seat to the table. The point is to get rid of the table. The point is liberation. Which is different from freedom, but we’ll get to that. 

Since the pandemic began, we have seen the fall of the girl boss. While Nasty Gal founder and author of #Girlboss Sofia Amooruso had a limited run of success, Nasty Gal went under like lead in a pool. In her 2020 Atlantic piece, The Girlboss Has Left the Building, Amanda Mull explained, “Like Sheryl Sandberg’s self-help hit Lean In before it, #Girlboss argued that the professional success of ambitious young women was a two-birds-one-stone type of activism: Their pursuit of power could be rebranded as a righteous quest for equality, and the success of female executives and entrepreneurs would lift up the women below them.”  

But that didn’t happen, and it never will. Like the boybosses before them, the only person that particular kind of power helps is the person wielding it. 

 

Why I Am Not a Feminist 

Somewhere along the way, feminism became trendy and the real message got lost. Suddenly, women wanted to embrace the title without stepping too far out of the mainstream. In 2017, Jesse Crispin published an incredible piece of feminist writing called Why I Am Not a Feminist: A Feminist Manifesto. In it, she scoffs at the young feminists who have become almost apologists for feminism, distancing themselves from radicals like Andrea Dworkin. She’s talking to the aforementioned aspiring girlbosses. Crispin explains candidly, “Asking for a system that was built for the express purpose of oppression to ‘um, please stop oppressing me?’ is nonsense work. The only task worth doing is fully dismantling and replacing that system.” 

A problem with the broad idea of feminism is that women have different wants and needs, and the public face of the movement somehow turned into upper middle class educated women, usually white, always ambitious. And these women look down upon working class women who would rather find safety in marriage and homemaking than work in grueling conditions. 

The house might be a prison, but when freedom looks like wiping up someone else’s vomit and urine under migraine-inducing fluorescent lighting, can you actually blame someone for asking to be let back into their cell? 

She goes on to explain how the feminist trajectory exemplified individual freedom over community support, family, marriage, and other structures, leaving us as individuals without the aid or assistance of others because we should be able to do it on our own. How very American, and a lovely parallel to our current public health crisis, but that is an analysis for another time.  

Certainly, there are intersectional lenses of feminism that value community support. Such as the feminism of women of color, like the late bell hooks who asked us to imagine more in Feminism is for Everybody: Passionate Politics: “Imagine living in a world where there is no domination, where females and males are not alike or even always equal, but where a vision of mutuality is the ethos shaping our interaction.” But that is not the feminism that has been sold in stores and seminars. That’s not the feminism of lucrative book deals. The mainstream narrative has pushed independence. This means freedom, I suppose but that is not the same as liberation. Crispin asks: 

 

How are women faring in the job market compared to men? Does that really matter when due to overwhelming student loans debt, sharply decreased job stability, the gutting of social services and work benefits, rapacious CEOs and boards of directors, and globalization, the world of work and money is hurting everyone? 

 

Feminism, Community Development, and Worker Reform 

The history of feminism is intimately tied to worker reform. The establishment of a federal minimum wage in 1938 was actually the first step in bridging the gender pay gap, at least on an hourly basis. But as Karina Margit Erdelyi points out, there are plenty of places where the gap remains. And then there’s domestic labor and the labor of childbirth and childrearing, which is unpaid and yet essential to the functioning of our society.  

But that’s not the only labor women performed for free. Before women entered the workforce en masse, particularly during and after World War II, women who could afford leisure time thanks to their husbands’ or families’ money were pivotal leaders in philanthropy and community building, even laying the foundation of the social work profession. But today, communities, schools, and children have suffered because that pivotal element of volunteer community organization no longer happens. Women have fewer hours in the day for volunteering. They’re too busy at work. Now there are organizations like nonprofits where women can get paid for the labor of service, but women only make up 43% of leadership in these organizations — despite making up the majority of leadership when their philanthropy was an unpaid service. 

In Silvia Federici’s Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body, and Primitive Accumulation, she draws complex lines between witch hunts, the exploitation of women’s unpaid domestic labor, the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, and the rise of capitalism: 

…capitalism, as a social-economic system, is necessarily committed to racism and sexism. For capitalism must justify and mystify the contradictions built into its social relations — the promise of freedom vs. the reality of widespread coercion, and the promise of prosperity vs. the reality of widespread penury — by denigrating the “nature” of those it exploits: women, colonial subjects, the descendants of African slaves, the immigrants displaced by globalization. 

So how do we say Girl Power and Black Lives Matter in the face of all that? 

This is an extreme view that I’m sure plenty of folks may not be 100% on board with, but it does force us to think about the implications of systems and the ways that we participate in them. There may be a way that the capitalist grind can overcome oppression. It may be obvious to some. It may not be necessary to others, which is part of the problem. 

Feminism is fragmented because many women come from complex backgrounds and a variety of belief systems. Not all women are feminists, and they shouldn’t have to be. Not all women are united under the intersectional lens because, despite their own intersectional identities, not all women think the same way. 

Facing the Truth of Biology and Work 

Growing up in the ‘90s, I was fed the narrative that I could do anything a man could do. That not letting my womanhood get in the way of success was essential. As an adult, I realize that is not equality. That is not equity. The fact is women get periods. Women get pregnant. We create life, birth it, and are more often than not the primary caregivers to this offspring. And without those things, our species would die out. Many developed countries have begun to acknowledge that and make sick time available for menstruators with painful cramps. They have generous parental leave policies that include fathers, which ultimately lessens gender discrimination as it encourages both parents to take leave from work. But that is not the case in the United States, which is a big problem. 

I’ll admit, a lot of this is personal. I’ve been a competent student and professional my entire life, but now I am also pregnant and tired. I am nauseous and fatigued and in pain a lot of the time, but I still feel the pressure of showing up and getting my work done and not losing the strides I’ve made for myself in my career. I haven’t felt good in over two months, and my question is this: Is pregnancy that awful, or am I just asking too much of a body that is trying to build a human?  

Because right now, I don’t feel capable and strong and powerful, but maybe that’s because I’m coming up short within a paradigm that doesn’t support the functions of my body. I don’t know what the right answer is when it comes to creating a more equitable society, but I do know that the emotional and mental tolls of living in a female body have been immense. 

I’m not the only one that feels that way. In 2012,  Ann-Marie Slaughter wrote Why Women Still Can’t Have It All. In this deeply personal and poignant piece, she explores the issue of having ambition while wanting to care for your children. Maybe, she hesitatingly suggests, many of us actually want to have the flexibility to be home with our kids. And if we’re a nation that values family, why don’t our policies reflect that? 

I felt resistance turning this discussion about feminism into a discussion about pregnancy and childrearing, but the fact of the matter is that our anatomy and the blessings and curses of it are at the focal point of our oppression. (That’s why birth control and abortion access was and is such a massive deal when it comes to women’s rights.) Let me introduce you to a term I recently learned: the feminization of poverty. This term refers to how the burden of pregnancy and childrearing and life events like divorce affect women overall more than men and worsen their economic situation.  

Not only that, but there is such a thing as the “motherhood penalty” and the “fatherhood reward” when it comes to employment. According to research by sociologist Sherry J. Correll, mothers make 4% less per child while fathers make 6% more. And when the burden of childcare falls on mothers, hiring managers looking out for their bottom line will of course choose a mother last for a job or promotion. During the pandemic we experienced a “she-cession” as many mothers bowed out of the workforce to care for their children who were no longer in school.  

Further evidence of the disregard with which we treat working mothers is that the United States has higher maternal mortality rates than other developed nations. This is often attributed to having less paid leave. 

Until parental responsibilities are equally distributed, this kind of discrimination will not stop. That can’t happen until all parents are awarded parental leave, which has been shown to help even the burden and reduce stigma against working mothers in other developing countries. It also improves maternal health and decreases infant mortality. 

It’s not just about putting more women in leadership roles or eliminating the gender pay gap, but about addressing an entire system built on our unpaid labor. A system that needs and adulates mothers while simultaneously punishing them. 

What Can I Do? 

Here are a few simple initiatives that companies can take to alleviate some of the burden: 

  • Prioritize diversity, equity and inclusion by understanding unconscious bias, and not only recruiting with that in mind but also when making promotions and leadership hires. 
  • Offer generous parental leave that includes both parents so that the burden and stigma of time off does not solely fall on mothers.  
  • Include employee resource groups and offerings for community organizations both internally and externally. Maybe even offer paid time off for charity work. 
  • Vote for policies that support women, children, and families. That includes access to education, contraception, medical services, community support, and financial support for low-income families. 
  • Imagine a future that values cooperation over competition, and implement those values in your organization. 

About the author. 
Alessandra is the mentor, educator, and writer behind Boneseed, a private practice devoted to deep self-inquiry through a range of physical, energetic, and mental modalities. She has over 500 hours of yoga, mentorship, and facilitation training and can be found slinging knowledge on her website, newsletter, and @bone.seed. 

Photo: Mattel/Barbie

Say hello to two new iconic Barbies: Celia Cruz, Afro-Cuban Queen of Salsa, and Julia Alvarez, lauded Dominican-American activist, author, and poet.

These one-of-a-kind role model muñecas were released by Mattel this September 15 in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month — just one example of a broad effort by toy companies to be more inclusive. And Barbie, long criticized for presenting girls with an unrealistic ideal of the female body, has been helping lead the charge towards greater inclusivity. In 2019, Mattel introduced a line of gender-neutral dolls called Creatable World, which are customizable and not limited by gender.

Companies that ignore diversity and inclusivity do so at their peril. Research conducted by Mintel, a marketing research company, shows that nearly nine in ten parents worry about the world in which their children are growing up. If they can help bridge some of the myriad divides that exist by getting toys their kids can relate to, it’s something they are willing to pay for.

Let’s take a look at the legendary icons who Mattel chose to honor.

Celia Cruz

Celia Cruz, “La Guarachera de Cuba,” is a symbol of Cuban and Latin culture and was a pioneer of Afro-Latinidad. She was known as the “Latin Triple Threat” — a powerful stage performer, on-screen actor, and musical recording sensation who managed to find immense success in the male-dominated music scene.

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“Her long and storied career serves as an endless inspiration for aspiring musicians. Through the Celia Cruz Foundation, her legacy continues to provide scholarships for young Latino students,” Barbie said on Instagram.

Born in 1925 in Havana, Cruz was one of an extended family of 14. After winning a talent show and making a name for herself, she quit school to go after her dream of making it big in music.

In 1950, Cruz became the first Black woman to be the lead singer of the famed La Sonora Matancera orchestra. But despite the group’s success in radio and film, when nightlife evaporated after the Cuban Revolution in 1959, Cruz had to migrate. She first went to Mexico before landing in the United States, where she found fame by becoming part of the salsa music scene of the early 1970s.

The Queen of Salsa is famed for her opera-like voice, flamboyant costumes, brightly colored wigs, and higher-than-high heels. Cruz won three Grammys and four Latin Grammy awards and has been the subject of numerous films and documentaries. She passed away in 2003 from brain cancer. Her autobiography was published posthumously in 2004, and just this year, a street in the Bronx was named after her.

Julia Àlvarez

Award-winning multi-hyphenate Dominican-American author, educator, and activist Julia Álvarez is the other icon Mattel is celebrating. Born in New York City in 1950, she spent the first ten years of her life in the Dominican Republic, until her father’s involvement in a failed political rebellion forced her family to flee their country back to New York.

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“Julia Álvarez is an award-winning Dominican-American writer, educator, and activist, whose vast body of work explores multicultural themes as they relate to children and adults alike,” Barbie wrote on Instagram.

Much of Álvarez’s work has been influenced by her experience as a Dominican-American. She is known for closely examining cultural expectations of women both here in the United States and the Dominican Republic and taking a penetrating look at cultural stereotypes.

Álvarez rose to prominence with the novels How the García Girls Lost Their Accents (1991), In the Time of the Butterflies (1994), and Yo! (1997). Many literary critics consider her one of the most significant Latina writers due to her widespread international commercial success, and her preeminence was entrenched when President Barack Obama awarded her the National Medal of Arts in 2013.

Representation matters for those of Hispanic and Latinx origin, perhaps now more than ever.

The Census Bureau projects that by 2060, one in three women will be Hispanic in the United States. Mattel likely hoped to be heralded for their effort to be more representational by creating these two Barbies, but this may have backfired. Many have taken to social media to decry what they see as an empty gesture and well-timed publicity stunt. Why? Because these one-of-a-kind dolls are not for sale, according to the official Twitter account of Barbie.

As you might imagine, the Twittersphere is not happy — many are upset and see this as a faux equity gesture. But perhaps Mattel will reconsider if there is an overwhelming clamoring for these iconic Barbies to be commercially released. We hope they decide to bring the Celia Cruz and Julia Álvarez Barbies to market, because the Hispanic community deserves to see themselves represented beyond the tokenism of a one-of-a-kind doll.

About the author
An award-winning creator and digital health, wellness, and lifestyle content strategist—Karina writes, produces, and edits 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, Yahoo News, Pregnancy & Newborn, Eat This Not That, thirdAGE, and Remedy Health Media digital properties and has spanned insight pieces on psychedelic toad medicine to forecasting the future of work to why sustainability needs to become more sustainable.

There is perhaps no political demonstration more iconic, well known, or influential in American history than the 1963 March on Washington. Hundreds of thousands of people participated in the event, where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous “I Have a Dream Speech” and the actions taken that day spurred congress to enact the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. While the March remains a benchmark in civil right history, one of the key architects of the March itself is all too often overlooked.

Bayard Rustin was a fearless and prolific leader for civil rights, the labor movement, socialism, and gay rights in the United States, and played a significant role in many of the biggest political demonstrations in the 20th century.

Rustin was born on March 17, 1912, in West Chester, Pennsylvania, where he was raised by his maternal grandparents. Rustin was exposed to civil rights activism from a young age, as his grandmother was a member of the NAACP, and he credited his own activism with being raised Quaker. His grandmother was also accepting of the fact that Rustin was gay: when he told her he was more interested in men than women, she is said to have responded, “I suppose that’s what you need to do.”

Rustin spent his early adulthood cutting his teeth on organizing and activism. He was expelled from Ohio HBCU Wilberforce University for organizing a strike and eventually landed in New York where he joined the Young Communist League; he left after being ordered to “cease protesting racial segregation in the US armed forces” — and pursued a career as a vocalist.

Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, Rustin worked with the Fellowship of Reconciliation, a pacifist justice organization founded by A.J. Muste as well as A. Philip Randolph, who founded the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the first predominantly Black labor union. Together the three men organized a March on Washington in 1941, to protest racial segregation and discrimination in the armed forces, but the March was cancelled when then President Roosevelt issued an executive order banning racial and ethnic discrimination in the defense industries.

Rustin was arrested and imprisoned a number of times for his political demonstrations. He served 26 months for resisting the draft as a conscientious objector and was arrested multiple times for desegregating buses, including organizing the Journey of Reconciliation, also known as the First Freedom Ride.

His outspokenness and activism for Black liberation was inextricably linked with being openly gay. Rustin stated that to protest was to educate children and adults that segregation and racist treatment of Black people in America was not okay, going on to say:

“It occurred to me shortly after that that it was an absolute necessity for me to declare homosexuality, because if I didn’t, I was a part of the prejudice. I was aiding and abetting the prejudice that was a part of the effort to destroy me.”

Rustin was fearlessly and unapologetically open regarding his sexuality, which was rare at the time, but intolerance towards his being gay cost him opportunities and forced the brilliant organizer to take a back seat during the historic movement.

After being arrested in California in 1953 for sexual activity with another man, Rustin resigned from the Fellowship of Reconciliation. When he and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. began organizing the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, other Black leaders voiced concern that Rustin’s sexuality would damage the civil rights movement — Harlem Congressman Adam Clayton Powell even threatened to falsely accuse King and Rustin of having an affair in order to get King to cancel a march he and Rustin planned. King capitulated to Powell’s demands and distanced himself from Rustin (who stepped down from the SCLC) to the dismay of young African Americans.

From there, Rustin organized the March on Washington alongside A. Philip Randolph, and although he played an undeniably pivotal role in the event, he was once again forced out of the spotlight by other leaders who feared the impact his sexuality might have on the movement. Throughout the following decades, Rustin continued his advocacy, and in the 1980s, he addressed his sexuality more publicly and openly advocated for gay rights.

It’s truly unfortunate that Bayard Rustin is often left out of mainstream narratives when it comes to the March on Washington, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and other Civil Rights achievements simply due to his sexuality.

But hopefully we can continue to pay tribute to those like Rustin who were denied their flowers despite their brilliance and power. And while Rustin was forced to sacrifice one part of who he was for the sake of another, the fact that he never denied who he was and always lived truthfully is the very thing that made him a great leader and man of integrity.

After all, according to Rustin, “To be afraid is to behave as if the truth were not true…”

We can learn so much from Bayard Rustin, from the meaning of non-violent protest to how divisions in race and class are rooted in socioeconomic inequalities. But we can also learn from how he lived his life. That to know yourself, to live in your truth, to speak truth to power, is to be fearless.

About the author.
Sam Mani writes about work, creativity, wellness, and equity — when she’s not cooking, binging television, or annoying her cat.

June 28, 1969. The Stonewall Inn, a known gay bar in New York City’s Greenwich Village, was raided by the NYPD. This was nothing new. What was new was the response — the gay community stood their ground and fought back. Many people who were there that night identified Marsha P. Johnson, a 23-year-old drag artist, as one of the main instigators. Days of protests and riots followed, activating a movement in the LGBT community to fight for their right to exist without the threat of violence and police harassment. A fight that continues to this day.

Born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, in 1945, Marsha began wearing dresses at age 5 but stopped shortly after that due to the violence and harassment she experienced as a result. Her mother told her that being homosexual made her “lower than a dog,” so as soon as she got her high school diploma and turned 18, she crossed the river to New York City with nothing more than $15 and a bag of clothes.

Marsha P. Johnson was a character known in the Village and throughout the City for more than just her eccentric fashion.

She constantly showed up with a friendliness that came with no agenda — always the type to say “hello” whether she knew you or not. The P in her name iconically stood for “Pay it no mind,” which was her response to anyone who questioned or challenged her gender expression.

Marsha knew the dangers and hardships of living on the streets as a Black trans woman and working NYC’s Westside piers as a prostitute. Along with fellow trans activist and friend Sylvia Rivera, she founded STAR, the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries, which provided resources to trans youth living on the streets — including STAR House, which offered them safe shelter. Marsha’s generous spirit defined her activism. She was constantly giving all she could and was committed to taking care of the community and folks that came through STAR House.

In the 1970s, the mainstream gay rights movement shifted away from the populations that started it all.

The rights and visibility of white, middle-class homosexuals began to take priority over the street queens and trans women of color. Heritage of Pride, who ran the Gay Pride events, went as far as to ban all transvestites from the parade because they claimed that the drag queens were seen as too “different” and “other” in a way that would hinder the progress towards rights for white homosexual men. So, instead of marching in the parade, Marsha and Sylvia instead marched IN FRONT of the official parade. As leaders in the movement for gay liberation, they took their rightful place in leading that parade.

When the AIDS epidemic hit, Marsha took care of patients when others would often stigmatize and ostracize them as they suffered. She challenged the notion that AIDS somehow made a person dirty or undeserving of respect; she believed you should “stand as close to them as you can and help them as much as you can.” She advocated for remembering those who died of AIDS for all the courage they had fighting the disease.

She was known as Saint Marsha to the many folks who knew her throughout the City. The magic of Marsha P. Johnson was her kindness and generosity, and that built her legend. She would spend the last two dollars she had on a box of cookies and then walk through the Village to the Piers, handing them out. She knew what it was like to be hungry and living on the street, so she knew that gift of a chocolate chip cookie to a starving street queen was a great gift. If there was anything she had, even just a bag of potato chips, she would hand that over to homeless queer youth she would come across.

Every year, she marched because Marsha knew the fight was never over — even as Pride events began leaning more towards celebration than protest — sharing that:

“You never completely have your rights, one person, until you ALL have your rights. And I think as long as one gay person has to walk for gay rights, God, all of us should be walking for gay rights.”

Marsha P. Johnson died in June of 1992; her body was found in the Hudson River.

She put her life on the line fighting for LGBT rights — while the police ruled her death a suicide, there was no thorough investigation into her death. Those that knew her highly doubt the validity of that ruling. Marsha would sometimes get harassed on the Pier, and many queens had been subject to violence in that area. Despite those circumstances, the police did not investigate it any further. Hundreds of people showed up to her funeral, overflowing the church, and they had to shut down 7th Avenue for her procession.

At a time when gay people were expected to hide who they really were and conform to the standards of straight American norms to survive, Marsha’s decision to authentically present as herself every day was a radical act of rebellion. While she actively fought for gay liberation, ending police brutality, and AIDS awareness, she was an advocate for the fundamental human right to exist at the core of it all.

About the author.
An award-winning creator and digital health, wellness, and lifestyle content strategist—Karina writes, produces, and edits 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, Yahoo News, Pregnancy & Newborn, Eat This Not That, thirdAGE, and Remedy Health Media digital properties and has spanned insight pieces on psychedelic toad medicine to forecasting the future of work to why sustainability needs to become more sustainable.

What kind of work do you do? Where do you work?

I’m a freelance graphic designer and work for myself: I do web development, illustration, custom design, and more. In addition, I work with Creative Circle and design the Cognitive Art data visualization in the new client-facing newsletter, The Creative State of Work.

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How long have you been doing graphic design?

I have been doing graphic design professionally for 14 years. I kicked off my career with 10 years full-time at an advertising agency, specializing in pharma. For the last 4 years I have been doing freelance design work across all different types of industries and projects.

I went to school at Temple University, to the Tyler School of Art, and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic & Interactive Design. It was a phenomenal program because it was built on the foundation of robust art. Before diving into the world of graphic design, we were required to take art classes, which included painting, sculpture, figure drawing, screen printing, lithography, etching, photography, art history, and more. I also did a semester abroad in Rome — there’s no better place to study Art History and Photography when you have the Colosseum and Vatican in your backyard! Once we had a strong understanding and connection to these different artistic mediums, we transformed our knowledge and skill into graphic design, shifting to the computer as our main form of expression.

What are some of your design inspirations?

I follow fellow graphic designers and artists through social media, one of my favorites (also a fellow Tyler School of Art alum), is Jessica Hische. She creates beautiful typography and is a best-selling author.

Although most of my inspiration viewing is done online, I also like the tactical experience of flipping through books. A common go-to for me is The History of Graphic Design. The volumes span across different periods of times and styles. I also keep an eye out for the unexpected inspiration around me like the label design on an item I may have purchased at the grocery store or the beautiful designs inside the children’s books that I purchase for my son, Logan. Some of my favorite illustrated children’s books are by Richard Scarry and I love Rosie Revere Engineer (illustrated by David Roberts).

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What drew you to graphic design and front-end development?

I have always been passionate about art — specifically painting with oil and acrylic. Once I was introduced to what “graphic design” was and learned that the computer could be a tool for me to create art, transform it, and share it with the world, I was hooked. I love the challenge and journey of turning a thought or idea into something visual.

Where would you like to go with your design work in the future?

In the near future, I hope my freelance opportunities continue to be diverse, spanning across different types of companies and projects. As much as pharma ad agency life taught me (which I am very thankful for and wouldn’t be where I am today without it), at times it was quite constraining creatively. I am taking advantage of having fewer boundaries (read: less med/legal review) and using this time as a creative reset.

Even though I absolutely LOVE graphic design, I have two side goals that I hope to accomplish. The first is that I have a passion for decorating cakes, cupcakes, and cookies. My love for decorating started at my first real job at my neighbor’s cookie shop where I decorated specialty sugar cookies that we assembled into baskets and bouquets in lieu of flowers. My hope is to work in a bakery again one day, even if it’s a side job. When I am decorating, the icing and cake are just another medium for me to create and design!

My second design desire is to write and illustrate a children’s book. Since having Logan, I have thoroughly enjoyed discovering the wealth and breadth of children’s books — there are so many magical stories and unique styles of expression.
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What is a project that you’re currently working on that you’re excited about?

I am excited about all of the projects that I am working on right now. It’s true! For the past three months I have been creating the Cognitive Art for the monthly Creative Circle newsletter with a fellow CC member. This has been a blast to work on because I get to turn data and numbers into a piece of artwork. Any chance to force your brain to think differently is always an opportunity for growth.

In a totally different realm of design, I am working on a custom print project and a brand identity package. I am finishing up a wedding invitation for a simple and elegant bride. Wedding invitations are such a crucial element because they introduce the look and feel of the wedding. I also just finished a logo refresh/recreate for another client that owns a bakeshop. Now that the logo is final, I will be building a website which will align with the grand opening of their storefront.

How long have you been a part of Creative Circle?

Since March 2021.

About the author.
An award-winning creator and digital health, wellness, and lifestyle content strategist—Karina writes, produces, and edits 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, Yahoo News, Pregnancy & Newborn, Eat This Not That, thirdAGE, and Remedy Health Media digital properties and has spanned insight pieces on psychedelic toad medicine to forecasting the future of work to why sustainability needs to become more sustainable.

There’s long been a refrain among working moms in the United States that to get ahead, the “mama” part of their lives had to be hidden from view, lest they be perceived as undedicated to their career or somehow less suited to the job. And for mothers that are hourly wage workers, this burden is even more starkly evident.

As Betsey Stevenson, an economist at the University of Michigan, shared in a New York Times article on pandemic motherhood, “Covid took a crowbar into gender gaps and pried them open.” There is no hiding anymore. The struggles of working parents, but especially moms, have never been more visible. And yet this work — I’m talking the coordinating, scheduling, planning, multitasking, the mad hustle to make it all work, too often goes unseen. It’s the moms who tend to be responsible for the health of their families, worrying about germs (and viruses), handling the sick days, doctor and dental appointments, and being the default caregivers for older relatives. And this work is mostly unsung — a silent valiant slog to make magic happen from one-handed flint strikes.

Here, we celebrate the stories of four enterprising working moms, living in or near New York City, with three hailing from various countries around the world. Some married, some separated, some somewhere in between — these women share what this past year has taught them about being the real heads of their families.

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Jackie Marie Scherr

Age: 35
Rockaway, NJ
Married with a four-year-old son, Logan, who is severely immunocompromised, Jackie is a graphic designer and front-end developer who works with Creative Circle.

+         What has been your experience as a working mom during the pandemic?
The words that best describe my pandemic experience are positively challenging.

Before Covid, I had this WFH isolated life down pat already. For most folks, this was their first foray into WFH, but it’s been my life since Logan was born. Unfortunately, he’s immunocompromised and can’t interact with other kids in the same way, under the best of circumstances. Logan was born without a functioning bone marrow system and lived on blood transfusions until he was eight months old, when he underwent a full bone marrow transplant. He recovered from the bone marrow failure he was born with, but two years later developed a platelet disorder, ITP (idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura), which means he continues to need special care.

We, as a family, were already living in this more careful, isolated world. But the extra challenging part with an immunocompromised kid is that there’s an added nerve-wracking weight to all our choices. We were already living a cautious existence — this just kicked everything into a far higher gear.

+      What kind of work do you do? Where do you work?
I’m a freelance graphic designer and work for myself: I do web development, illustration, custom design, and more. In addition, I work with Creative Circle and design the Cognitive Art data visualization in the new client-facing newsletter, The Creative State of Work.

+      Have your kids gone back to school?
Logan has never been in school. Once I had him, I had to leave my advertising job because of the risk to his health. We did sign him up for Pre-K — but that was before Covid. We do a virtual pre-school and an outdoor storytime at the library.

+      How have you gotten work done with the kid/s home?
Luckily, I live close to my parents, and they watch Logan two days a week. But when they can’t help me, I work in the morning before Logan wakes, at night after bedtime, and during the weekend, when my husband is home. The beauty of freelance is that I try not to bite off more work than I can chew.

+      Have you gotten any help from a partner?
Yes. Like anything else in a relationship, it took my husband and me a little bit of time to figure out how to balance things. The trick is that his job is the more sustaining one, our health insurance rests on it, and we’ve had to negotiate how we prioritize our various needs. He’s a detective and works in an office, so during Covid, it worked out in terms of our family health concerns. He wasn’t exposed in the same way he would’ve been had he been on a squad. Every night when he gets home, he strips down in the garage and showers before greeting us. Our circle is tiny. For months, Logan and I only went to his doctor’s appointments. Nothing else. We didn’t see my parents for a whole year. We mitigated every last possible risk we could.

+      What has been the most challenging thing about mothering and working and existing this past year?
Feeling guilty. When I’m working and Logan is here, I feel the need to overcompensate with him because he can’t go to school. His interactions are so limited with other kids and people; I feel the need to offer more attention, more activities, more and more and more. I get nervous because he’s so limited in every other aspect of his life that I just want to take advantage of the time I have with him to teach and be with him. It’s super nerve-wracking and worrisome to exist in a pandemic where an ordinary person can be knocked down by this virus, which makes it that much scarier given how precarious Logan’s immune system is. And because of Covid, I didn’t have help from my folks for a long time, which left me to find some semblance of balance on my own.

+      How are you taking care of yourself?
My only me-time is at night when I shower. The end of the day is when I get to zone out, close the door, close the bathroom door, put my music on — it’s my time to chill.

+      Has there been a best part?
The best part is that WFH is much more acceptable now. And that’s been the more limited world that I’ve inhabited for some time. So now that it’s the norm, I actually feel less constrained than I have in the last four years — which is probably the opposite of most people.

+      What would help working mothers in this country?
I think that the pandemic has been an eyeopener for a lot of male partners. Men are now seeing a lot of the chaos going on that they may not have understood before… I hope there’s change that comes from men seeing behind the scenes at all the work moms do to try to keep it all together.

Also, we need to put the kibosh on needing to be connected 24/7. At my old ad agency, if you weren’t connected all the time, you weren’t dedicated. My hope? That we learn that it’s time to sign off when it’s time to sign off. It doesn’t mean a lack of dedication; it means it’s time for life.

+ What advice would you share with other moms and mother figures?
Figuring out the balancing act of mothering and working isn’t an exact science. My advice would be just to give it time to work itself out. Communication is everything. Speak openly with your partner, and whoever helps you is a key to making it all work.

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Laura Limonic

Age 47
Brooklyn, NY by way of Buenos Aires, Argentina
Married with one daughter, Anabella, age 10, and one son, Alesandro, age 12. She is a Professor of Sociology at SUNY Old Westbury.

+      What has been your experience as a working mom during the pandemic?
It’s been difficult to manage both being at home with the kids as well as my own work. In large part the boundaries blur — too much — and my role as a mother often takes precedence over my role as a writer or professor.

+      What kind of work do you do? Where do you work?
I teach sociology at Old Westbury. I am currently writing a book about motherhood and the pandemic and also write about immigrant integration into the United States.

+      Have your kids gone back to school?

So, my kids technically go to school — they were able to go back two days a week, sometime in the late fall. But, before then, we had NO live instruction. Everything was asynchronous. They were just given a bunch of assignments to complete on their own. It was a disaster.

However, recently, they’re able to go to school four days a week, but… most of their classes are Zoom, so while they are in the classroom with other kids, they are Zooming with their teachers. Here’s why: No teacher is forced to go in four days a week because of issues of equity. Some teachers have gotten health accommodations. Pre-vaccine, they had comorbidities or had older relatives or infants in their homes. So, to make it fair for all teachers, they ask teachers who don’t have accommodations to only come in two days a week. Every school has done it differently. It’s not great for the kids.

At this point, they still have very little in-person instruction. My son has reading and science with live instruction, sometimes physical education — but very little. And one day a week is still asynchronous. They’re both home on Wednesdays and given assignments to complete on their own — that they finish in an hour tops, and then it’s up to me to invent things for them to do so I can get work done.

+      How have you gotten work done with the kid/s home?
Now that their classes are Zoom and not asynchronous, they’re more engaged, and I can get more work done. Last spring, we didn’t have any live Zoom classes — everything was asynchronous. And my kids finish the assignments quickly and get bored. They’re done. I was getting up at 5:30 am to work. There’s a lot of work that didn’t get done — a lot of articles that didn’t get written. A lot of conference proposals I didn’t submit. I was late on a lot of things. I think what happens is that, particularly for academics, now that I have tenure, I won’t get fired, but if I don’t publish, I won’t advance. Studies of women in academia show that the rate they submit papers for review has been much lower, whereas it has been much higher for men. It’s only served to stratify things further.

+      Have you gotten any help from a partner?
A little bit. But what happens is that because my work is more flexible — and my husband’s work is not — I end up taking on the bulk of the childcare and household labor. Perhaps it wasn’t that my partner did it in the past, more that we paid someone to do it. I think it’s common, especially among middle-class families, that childcare is outsourced. Families often rely on babysitters, nannies, after-school, and household help like housecleaners — none of which was available for much of the pandemic.

+      What has been the most difficult thing about mothering and working and existing this past year?
Mothers have always carried the mental load, and it has increased exponentially. Especially for mothers that work in thinking professions, it has become increasingly difficult to think. Mothers are planning and scheduling activities and academic enrichment on a much more intense level, making it more challenging to focus and think. When kids are in school, there’s a considerable chunk of time when you don’t have to think about these things: What are they doing for lunch? Are they on their iPads? It all takes up space — mental load —and doesn’t leave room for other things.

+      Has there been a best part?
Absolutely. It’s complicated to spend so much time with your family — but it’s also pretty awesome. We’ve done some amazing things together, and I’m deeply grateful. It’s hard to remember that when I want to kill them, but this summer was fantastic. We’ve had some really lovely times.

+      What would help working mothers in this country?
A couple of things — the most significant being mandated leave. Both mothers and fathers should get six months to a year of mandated leave so that there is no shame in taking the time. Caretaking continues to be in the women’s realm, and while men now have some paternity leave at some companies, they often don’t take all of it, or they take it in chunks because there’s a stigma attached to a father taking time to be with his baby.

Another thing the government should do is provide subsidized childcare in year one. I’ve found in my research that so many mothers take on flexible work because once they have a kid and realize that the cost of childcare is so prohibitive and working hours are so long. Yes, they may want to be home with their kids, but their choices are, in large part, due to cost — and they never catch up. They may have thought they’d go back to work, but the realities don’t add up. For instance, once they’ve moved to non-profit law, it’s tough to move back to corporate law. And then you don’t have these moms in the BIG jobs who can advocate for younger mothers — because they’re not there.

+      What advice would you share with other moms and mother figures?
That’s a great question. Don’t quit your job. Seriously. I read this great article about a professor telling students that they should get corporate law jobs, run for office, work in business, and not become social workers and teachers because we need more mothers in high-powered, high-paying jobs. Part of what’s happening is that mothers get paid far less than men and therefore command less power. Like it or not, we live in a capitalist society, and dropping out means we are not playing the game. We need more women in positions of power to advocate from within. Otherwise, the change won’t come.

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Yael Yefet

Age 40
Brooklyn, NY by way of Netanya, Israel
Separated, with one daughter, Zohar, age 10, and one son, Ori, age 7. She works at Employees Only — a buzzy, sexy restaurant in NYC’s West Village.

+      What has been your experience as a working mom during the pandemic?
I work in hospitality and was furloughed from my job at the very beginning of the pandemic, so I wasn’t working per se but did take on the lion’s share of managing my kids’ homeschooling efforts. And honestly, having two kids home all the time means that the cooking, cleaning, and overall house management got kicked up to the nth degree!

+      What kind of work do you do? Where do you work?
I work in the restaurant industry so was not able to do any work from home. I have to be physically present to do my job, so have been on unemployment for most of the past year.

+      Have your kids gone back to school?
Both kids went back full time in January. For the first part of the year, they were three days at home and two days at school.

+      Have you gotten any help from a partner?
Yes. When the kids were with their father, I could take care of the things I needed to do. We have a good working relationship and help each other out by being flexible and supporting each other where possible. It takes two to tango — it would be pretty hard to do this parenting thing by yourself.

+      What has been the most difficult thing about mothering and working and existing this past year?
Homeschooling dramatically changed my relationship with my children — and not for the better. I’m not sure that we are supposed to be our kid’s teachers; maybe some of us are, but not me. It was just too challenging to have the patience to do schoolwork with my kids, especially my young son. Ori didn’t have the patience to sit and do his tasks without it becoming a battle. We ended up arguing a lot, and it wasn’t a good situation for us. When they got back to school full-time, it was a blessing for us.

+      Has there been a best part?
Not having to rush —  or having to run out of the house in a flurry. It gave us a lot of quality time. I got to be the master of my own schedule, and that doesn’t happen often. We spent time doing things that the kids actually like doing, not things they have to do. It was nice seeing their thought process, even with homeschooling. I got to see how they think and implement the material they are learning. And we got very close. Instead of shuffling them from one place to another, I was able to spend that quality time with them.

+      What would help working mothers in this country?
Good care. Good after-school programs. Good affordable quality care. Someone who would do art with the kids, help them with their homework, take them out to play soccer. Did I say affordable? It takes a village til the kids are quite old.

+      What advice would you share with other moms and mother figures?
Stop trying to control things that you can’t control. Your relationship with your kids is more precious than your kids filling out a worksheet or picking items up around the house. It’s not worth losing your patience or temper; it doesn’t work for anyone — not you, not them.

Enjoy your children. It was nice just to enjoy my kids as they are, not just their accomplishments and what they do. I got to see that Zohar has an extensive bank of friends and admire her social skills; she’s friends with kids I didn’t know she was friends with. She finds beauty in many people — and a lot of people find beauty in her. It was beautiful to witness. Ori is a deep thinker, and I got to see that he thinks in 5 different directions simultaneously in practice.

One more thing: If you don’t have time for yourself, make time for yourself. No one is going to give it to you — you have to make it. Wake up an hour early so you can have your coffee/stretch.

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Tanya Veronica Renehan

Age 36
Brooklyn, NY by way of Melbourne, Australia
Separated with three sons, Elijah, 9; Sebastian, 7, Malakai, 3, she works as an executive assistant at a prominent dermatology practice on NYC’s tony Upper East Side.

+      What has been your experience as a working mom during the pandemic?
When the pandemic hit, I was furloughed because the dermatologist immediately shut the practice down. I had just moved into my new apartment at the end of February 2020 — just a couple weeks before the shutdown. I had been a victim of domestic violence and lived in a domestic violence shelter for women and children for 13 months prior. After an exhaustive search for a new home for me and my kids, I finally had found a home. ALL I did for over seven months was search daily for a new apartment that I could pay for with a special grant from the city for women in my situation. Finally, I started at the dermatology practice in late December 2019 and found an apartment through a different program, which took my new job into account.

My home was my holy grail — and I was so incredibly grateful that I had this apartment. When Covid first hit NYC, I thought it would blow over in a few weeks. But it’s still not done, and I am so forever thankful that my kids and I could ride the pandemic out in our new apartment.

+      What kind of work do you do? Where do you work?
I’ve been working as an executive assistant but was in television in Australia, working in the wardrobe department, and am looking to segue back into media again soon.

+      Have your kids gone back to school?
Yes, they are now in school learning in-person five days a week. They went back full-time, the two older ones, in the late fall. One of my boys has some learning challenges, and the school made special dispensations for children in his situation, and his brother got to tag along. I was very fortunate in that regard. My younger son is in daycare, which re-opened in autumn as well.

+      How have you gotten work done with the kid/s home?
When the pandemic began, I was furloughed. After a month or two passed, I started doing some work from home — but it was impossible. IMPOSSIBLE. I had two school-age boys home with different schedules and Zooms. A screaming toddler and just trying to keep the little one out of the way was its own job. You have to almost lock each kid in their own space in a two-bedroom apartment so they don’t fight or distract one another. I kept apologizing to my son’s teachers because I’d miss calls, confuse the schedule. I was still up late at night nursing and didn’t have a partner at home to help at all. And they were home all day, eating. The cooking and cleaning were nonstop. I couldn’t get on top of it all. But I tried. NYC living means no dishwasher or washing machine — so you can just imagine.

+      Have you gotten any help from a partner?
For most of the pandemic, I got no help. My relationship with my children’s father is clearly complicated. Back then, I didn’t trust that his choices were not exposing him to Covid, and I couldn’t take that chance. Today, things have shifted a little, and he helps with logistical things, ferrying the kids to and from school when he can, but they never stay with him, so I have three boys. All the time. 24/7. It’s a LOT.

+      What has been the most difficult thing about mothering and working and existing this past year?
Not getting a break. Feeling at times very burnt out and trying not to implode and lose my sh*t. Feeling the weight of responsibility constantly on me.

Also, my folks are in Melbourne, Australia, so I haven’t seen them now going on two years. I miss them a lot and want to see my gran while I still can.

+      Has there been a best part?
The timeline of when the pandemic transpired was at the start of my new life. I felt the year before that my life was on pause. There was a curfew at the shelter. Even though the pandemic, particularly the spring of 2020, was such a tough time, I was (and am) so incredibly thankful to have found a home just before the world shut down. The pandemic gave me the time to make a home. I ordered the things I needed and crafted a space for me and my boys to live in, which was all I had dreamt about for the 13 months I was living in the shelter — and I brought this vision to life during the shutdown.

+      What would help working mothers in this country?
I think that the United States is terrible when it comes to maternity leave. And they don’t support breastfeeding here. In Australia, breastfeeding is encouraged, and many mothers breastfeed because there is support for it there. Whether you give birth in a public or private hospital, the aftercare the mother receives is the same from the government. You get a midwife that comes and does house visits for the first month. You get lactation support. And if it’s your first baby, you are automatically put into a mother’s group with other new moms in your neighborhood. You meet weekly with the mothers and the leader of the group. Many people become very close with the moms they encounter in their group, and it helps create community.

+      What advice would you share with other moms and mother figures?
If you can, it’s essential to take some time for yourself. It can feel impossible sometimes, but I am a better mom when I can recoup and come back to my kids.

Also, when you are a mom like me, and you don’t have a lot of support, organization is your best friend. So prepare as much as you can the night before. I feel saner (and am my best self) when my home is organized — it helps me be a better mother.

If you are feeling overwhelmed or just need a little assistance, here are some resources that might help:

Mental Health Resources
Parents seeking emotional support can contact the National Parent Helpline at 855-427-2736.

If you are a recent mother looking for support, there are free online support groups offered by Postpartum Support International, with specific programs for Black moms, NICU parents, Spanish-speaking moms, queer parents, and more.

Legal Resources
The Center for WorkLife Law offers a free help line for parental legal rights. Call 415-851-3308 or email COVID19Helpline@worklifelaw.org.

The National Women’s Law Center provides complimentary consultations with attorneys in their legal network. Call 202-319-3053 or request assistance at their website.

A Better Balance, a nonprofit legal advocacy group, operates a confidential help line to assist callers with understanding their workplace rights. Call 833-633-3222.

Food & Housing Assistance
United Way operates a 24-hour help line that connects callers to local food programs, housing assistance, health care resources and mental health support. Dial 211 from your phone.

Mutual Aid Hub offers a nationwide listing of food pantries and community refrigerators and freezers.

About the author.
An award-winning creator and digital health, wellness, and lifestyle content strategist—Karina writes, produces, and edits 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, Yahoo News, Pregnancy & Newborn, Eat This Not That, thirdAGE, and Remedy Health Media digital properties and has spanned insight pieces on psychedelic toad medicine to forecasting the future of work to why sustainability needs to become more sustainable.