I’ve been uncool way before being uncool was cool.
Working in the advertising, digital media and publishing industries for a handful of years eventually led me to meet and marry a Star Wars nerd named Jeff. We made babies in 2006 and 2008, and seemingly overnight, became really cool special needs parents who fall asleep fully dressed, quote Joey from Friends, and are hooked on Doctor Who.
A tumble down the work-at-home-mom, freelancing rabbit hole followed, which found me joining the fledgling blog movement with two original parenting columns in 2006. Three years later, I fell into a techno-centric role that’s both pirate wizard and content ninja, which is really just a fancy way of saying I became a social media strategist before anyone really understood that social media strategy meant more than telling people what I ate for breakfast.
In 2010, I created Disney Social Media Magic after seeing a need for a virtual, daily curation of all things Disney on Facebook and Twitter. The springboard for breaking news, first looks, video, tweets, blog posts and photography has a community of more than 4,000 enthusiasts, and reaches more than twice that per week without any big budget marketing campaigns. Or small budget ones.
My work has appeared on Babble, Yahoo!, Cool Mom Picks, Cool Mom Tech and What To Expect, among others, and I’ve had the opportunity to photograph the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, the cast of Twilight, Walt Disney World’s New Fantasyland, Prince Edward Island’s Green Gables, and Skywalker Ranch, just to name a few fave assignments.
Then there’s travel.
Oh, how I love the travel.
Just the idea of it gives me the feels.
I joined the jet set at just six months old while on my first flight from Chile to Chicago, and generally thank my parents for my intense wanderlust. I just can’t quit traveling. Or wanting to travel. Or planning to travel. Think of me as Chocolat‘s Vianne without a sexy Roux sidekick. Sorry, Jeff.
Trips from coast to stateside coast, North and South America, Europe, the Caribbean and Mexico, along with recurring seasons of The Amazing Race, have further fanned the flame, and yes, I have an entire Pinterest board dedicated to places I want to see. Some of them again. Seriously. I don’t make a New Year’s Resolution list. I make a 40×40 instead. A lot of it involves eating. And dog sledding. And Instagramming.
When I’m not working, I spend as much time as possible squeezing my kids. When they drive me nuts, I spend my time hiding out in the bathroom thinking about how much clean up five minutes of solitude will cost me.
And, when deadlines loom, Jeff takes over the child wrangling so I can wordsmith away with the eccentricity people usually reserve for their descriptions of Shakespeare. Or Joseph Fiennes playing Shakespeare. Either way, it’s inky and confusing.
Thanks for joining me here. I hope you’ll stay awhile. Even if you don’t have kids who think they’re sloths and treat your legs like trees.
Find press, awards and other niceties the people who read “about” pages usually want to know about here, and sites where I’m currently contributing here.
Photo credit: Janice Croze Photography
