This week’s guest is Jennifer Blecher. She is a lawyer and former assistant district attorney turned children’s book author. Her latest book, her second published by Harper Collins is called “Stick With Me,” a novel for middle-grade readers with themes that resonate with girls. Two powerful themes are bullying and fitting in, and we talk about how Jen’s books can help girls power through. 

As the mother of three daughters 8-13, Jennifer finds tremendous inspiration under her own roof and while driving carpool, but balancing the girls’ need for privacy can be tricky. So many parents – Moms in particular — struggle with this. How do we create an authentic social media presence without exploiting our children? I’m finding this becomes much tricker with a teenager! Jen and I talk about striking that balance. 

Jen and I also tackle career pivot and reinvention: how Jen made the decision to pivot in her career, why that was important to her, and the journey to becoming a full-time writer published by a major publishing house. 

One of the themes I especially love in this conversation relates to redefining “success.” So many of you listening are thinking about job or career shifts and pivots — it’s such an inevitable part of our lives. What we don’t often talk about is the need to redefine what success means to us. That definition can change as we bring others into our lives — a fact that has certainly been true for me, and I suspect for many of you. It can be difficult, and we may find ourselves, at times, feeling conflicted. Regardless of your path, I think you’ll find Jen’s journey and thoughtful perspective helpful. And, we’ll be talking more about the topic of how we define and re-define success on future episodes. 

QUICK UPDATE: Last week, She Said/She Said Podcast hit and surpassed 70k downloads! I’m beyond exited, but more than that, I’m so grateful that you are here with me and finding value in this content. I’d love to hear from you! What resonates? What would you like to hear more about? Reach me at the contact link or @LauraCoxKaplan via DM on Instagram, Facebook, or Linked In. In the meantime, thank you! 

Have a great week! See you next time!