Host Elizabeth Tiglao-Guss reflects on living in a “messy middle” where her life feels both joyful and heavy: she’s making new friends, enjoying a new hobby, and feeling excited about projects, while also processing difficult new news about her dad’s health after last year’s serious health scare and caregiving season. She shares how being the only one in her large Filipino family without children has led her to place extra responsibility on herself—feeling she must be more available, justify her existence, and preempt potential judgment—despite knowing childfree people don’t inherently have more bandwidth. She wrestles with guilt about honoring grief while continuing to build her life, and concludes that two truths can coexist. She encourages listeners, especially those without kids, to name and acknowledge this self-imposed load as a first step to change.

• Living in Contradiction
• Dad’s Health Update
• The Messy Middle
• Carrying Extra Weight
• Love vs Self Growth
• Two Truths Can Coexist
• If You’re Childfree Too
• Closing Thoughts

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IG: @bychanceavenue

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Host Elizabeth Tiglao-Guss shares the fuller context behind an Instagram video about returning to Joshua Tree for her 13th wedding anniversary with Victor, contrasting it with a trip nearly three years earlier when they went to the desert to decide whether to renew their adoption home study and continue a decade-long infertility journey. On that earlier trip, amid emotional weight and a storm, they had a vulnerable conversation and chose to end the process, with Elizabeth fearing Victor might later regret the decision. Revisiting the same desert recently, she notices a new sense of peace, contentment, and joy alongside ongoing sadness, and emphasizes that this inward peace comes from her own grieving and healing work, not from having a partner, offering hope to listeners wherever they are in their journey.

• Why Share Again
• Anniversary Desert Trip
• The Hard Joshua Tree Decision
• Storm and Final Conversation
• Returning With Peace
• Peace Comes From Within
• Closing Reflections and Hope

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Host Elizabeth Tiglao-Guss speaks with Sarah, co-founder of The Otherhood Collective, about Sarah’s path toward living without children and how the project began with longtime friend and co-founder Lisa Levy. Sarah is the co-founder of The Otherhood Collective, a community and storytelling platform that gives voice to those navigating life outside traditional expectations of motherhood, family, and identity. With nearly two decades of experience working with brands like Amazon, ESPN, Disney, NBC, and Paramount, she’s passionate about creating spaces where diverse stories are heard, celebrated, and empower others to live authentically.

Sarah shares trying to conceive in her early 30s, undergoing medical testing and hormone treatments, being told IVF likely wouldn’t work, and choosing not to pursue surrogacy, donor paths, or adoption due to emotional capacity amid repeated family losses, including the deaths of her parents, her husband’s brother, a niece, and later her mother-in-law’s decline. She discusses redirecting love toward nieces, nephews, and community, the ongoing grief without regret, and a non-label approach to “childless/childfree.” They describe The Otherhood Collective’s year of storytelling content, the catharsis participants feel sharing with strangers, plans for in-person events, and where to find the Collective online, including a new Substack.

• Her Motherhood Journey Begins
• Fertility Treatments and Pauses
• Choosing Another Path
• Loss and Mental Capacity
• Regret, Grief, and Acceptance
• Founding The Otherhood Collective
• Childfree vs Childless Labels
• Community Threads and Storytelling
• Future Plans and In-Person Events
• Defining a Full Life Today
• Closing and Where to Find Them

Connect with Sarah:

https://theotherhoodcollective.substack.com/

YT, TT, IG, FB, LI all @theotherhoodcollective

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IG: @bychanceavenue

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Host Elizabeth Tiglaso-Guss reflects on how, during grief and loss around not having children, people need empathetic community that “gets it,” and affirms the value of childless-not-by-choice spaces like the one they are building. They also warn that the same supportive bubble can become too small and limit growth if it becomes someone’s whole world, and they gently encourage listeners to “breathe different air” without abandoning the community or bypassing grief. Using examples like taking American mahjong lessons, hosting a beginner mahjong soiree where no one knew their story, and attending salsa dancing workshops, they describe the freedom of reconnecting with parts of themselves that existed before this journey. They also share their preference for reading general books on grief, healing, mindset, and growth rather than books centered on childlessness, and invite listeners to try one hobby, friend group, or space where they can simply be themselves.

• A Gentle Contradiction
• Why Empathy Matters
• The Bubble Effect
• Step Outside Briefly
• Reclaim Old Joys
• Choosing Different Books
• More Than One Identity
• One Small Experiment
• Community Plus Growth

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In this interview, Steph (Stephanie Phillips), founder of World Childless Week, shares her path to childlessness: after leaving an abusive relationship, she and her future husband tried to conceive in her late 30s, received devastating news from a doctor at age 39, and declined NHS-funded IVF due to timing, low odds, and her inability to lose weight while grieving. She describes navigating shock, isolation, and pronatalist culture, finding a crucial Facebook support group, and how she and her husband largely processed grief separately. Now nearly 60, she explains grief’s evolving “triggers,” speaking openly, and fears and planning around aging without children.

Stephanie spent a large part of her twenties in an abusive relationship so took the contraceptive pill to prevent a child being born into that situation. In her early thirties she met her husband to be but they didn't try to conceive until nearing forty. At the age of 39 she was told by an unsympathetic doctor "if he manages to get you pregnant it is highly unlikely you'll carry full term". She knew in that moment, she would never be a mum.

In 2016 Stephanie Joy Phillips founded Childless Path To Acceptance, a free support group on Facebook that welcomes anyone who is childless by circumstance, infertility, chance or tough choices.

In 2017 after realising there was no national recognition of the childless community Stephanie had an idea for a global awareness week. She mentioned her idea to several childless friends who encouraged her to pursue her idea. Inspired by their enthusiasm, she spoke to the childless not by choice community who rallied round and stepped forward to offer their support and participation. Six weeks later World Childless Week went live for the first time. In 2026 World Childless Week will be celebrating ten years of giving the childless community a platform where they can find their voice and share their stories with confidence.

Stephanie lives in Worcestershire with her husband and two rescue cats, Storm and Tea-Cup. She enjoys gardening, arts and crafts, a good book, dining out and relaxing in front of the television with a puzzle book and one of her two cats snuggled up beside her.

• Meet Steph
• Her Childless Journey
• Diagnosis and IVF Decision
• Finding Support Online
• Marriage Under Grief
• Speaking Up Publicly
• Aging Without Children
• Aging Without Kids Planning
• Silver Linings And Preparedness
• Why World Childless Week Began
• Choosing September 16
• First Year On Facebook
• Childless Versus Childfree
• Growth Website And Webinars
• Common Threads And Isolation
• Healing Worthiness And Anonymity
• Meaningful Life And Getting Involved

Connect with Stephanie:

https://www.facebook.com/WorldChildlessWeek

https://www.instagram.com/worldchildlessweek

https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanie-phillips1966/

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IG: @bychanceavenue

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Host Elizabeth Tiglao-Guss reflects on a week of being sick at home and noticing unexpected reminders of what she and her husband, Victor, don’t have. She shares three moments that landed differently: a Facebook post claiming you don’t know love until you have children, a coworker telling Victor he “highly recommend[s]” having kids, and an Apple TV show, Shrinking, featuring a simplified adoption storyline with a happy ending. While not triggered in the way she once would have been, Elizabeth describes feeling the weight of their journey and their two failed adoptions, and acknowledges that even after healing, random comments or media can still catch you off guard. She encourages listeners to notice these moments without over-meaning them, remember they pass, and know they aren’t alone.

• Sick Week Reflections
• The Love Quote Sting
• Coworker Kid Talk
• Adoption Plot Surprise
• Not Triggered But Aware
• Healing Still Has Moments
• You Are Not Alone
• Closing Take Care

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Host Elizabeth Tiglao-Guss speaks with a New York-based filmmaker about her multi-year journey through unexplained infertility, multiple IVF rounds beginning at age 38 in 2019, and the trauma of continuing treatment as the city shut down during the pandemic, including a failed transfer and chemical pregnancy.

Lisa is the Co-Founder of The Otherhood Collective, a storytelling platform and community using real voices to challenge and reshape narratives around parenthood, identity, and belonging. After repeated cycles yielding one embryo that failed, health issues and surgery, she and her husband explored adoption but struggled with pandemic red tape, emotional readiness, and unspoken exhaustion before drifting toward acceptance that having children would not happen.

She describes keeping the process secret, feeling unsupported, loneliness, and grief shifting from shame to sadness, especially around milestones like Mother’s Day. Seeking deeper representation, she and longtime friend Sarah created The Otherhood Collective to share layered, inclusive video stories that bridge divides between parents and non-parents and help people feel less alone.

• Starting the Journey
• Trying to Conceive
• IVF Meets Pandemic
• Rounds and Setbacks
• Considering Adoption
• Last IVF Attempt
• Letting It Fade
• Grief After Treatment
• Keeping It Secret
• Loneliness and Therapy
• Creating Otherhood
• Where I Am Now
• Sadness Without Shame
• Advice for the Thick
• Beyond Black and White
• Future of Otherhood
• Final Thanks and Wrap

Connect with Lisa:

LINKS:

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@TheOtherhoodCollective

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/theotherhoodcollective/

TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@theotherhoodcollective

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-otherhood-collective/

Website - https://www.theotherhoodcollective.com

Get Involved - https://www.theotherhoodcollective.com/get-involved-1

Connect with Elizabeth:

IG: @bychanceavenue

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Host Elizabeth Tiglao-Guss opens an honest conversation about the unspoken worry many childfree women carry: what aging will look like without children and whether life will still feel full, enough, or lonely. Reflecting on her parents’ aging and a medical scare that led her and her husband, Victor, to care for them for months in California, she describes realizing that, as a Filipino raised in a culture where caring for elders is expected, the cycle of family caretaking may stop with her. She shares fears about needing support later in life, the possibility of assisted living, and the financial and emotional realities of having no one else to lean on, while acknowledging those facing this completely alone. Rather than offering “toxic positivity,” she validates the sadness, uncertainty, and fear, and invites ongoing conversations with other women, including older voices.

• The Unspoken Fear
• Asking the Hard Questions
• Parents Aging Reality Check
• Culture of Caregiving
• When the Cycle Stops
• Spiraling Into the Future
• Planning for Two
• Seeing Women Alone
• Living Present Yet Wondering
• No Toxic Positivity
• Opening the Conversation
• You Are Not Alone
• Closing Thanks

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IG: @bychanceavenue

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Host Elizabeth Tiglao-Guss reflects on the “comparison trap” in the context of living without children, sharing how it shows up in layered, sometimes contradictory ways. She describes beach days with her partner Victor where being surrounded by young families brings an unexpected sense of relief at not managing the exhaustion of toddlers, especially at 51 after trying IVF and adoption in her 40s. At the same time, conversations with friends who enjoy close relationships with their college-age and grown children spark curiosity and longing about what her own relationship with an adult child might have been like. She emphasizes that both relief and wondering can be true, that comparison can come and go without overtaking life, and that all emotions—envy, anger, resentment, or peace—are valid with no timeline for grief.

• Comparison Trap Reframed
• Beach Walks And Noise
• Relief Without Kids
• The Other Side Of Comparison
• Wondering About Adult Kids
• Both Feelings Can Coexist
• Layers Of Comparison
• Permission To Feel It All
• Closing Thoughts

Whether you’re in the thick of grief or finally starting to feel like yourself again, there’s a name for where you are and a roadmap waiting for you.

bychanceavenue.com/roadmap

Connect with Elizabeth:

IG: @bychanceavenue

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Host Elizabeth Tiglao-Guss shares a surprise insight from a recent therapy session: beneath current relationship tension, she’s grieving the loss of sisterhood and a deep craving for kinship with women who truly know her. She reflects on longing for belonging since college and explains how infertility and loss can quietly isolate women as social circles shift around kids, causing friendships to drift and compounding grief—especially for single women navigating the journey without a partner. Elizabeth offers practical ways to rebuild connection intentionally using available time and bandwidth: host small gatherings, name the desire for deeper friendship out loud, seek women in a similar season through groups like Facebook, stay open to unlikely friendships across ages and life stages, and deepen existing relationships one step at a time. She closes by encouraging listeners to reach out this week and DM her on Instagram at by Chance Avenue.

• Therapy Surprise Insight
• Grieving Sisterhood Loss
• A Lifelong Longing
• Infertility Isolation Effects
• Single Women Loneliness
• Turning Ache Into Action
• Host Small Gatherings
• Say It Out Loud
• Find Your Season People
• Unlikely Friendships
• Quality Over Quantity
• Sisterhood Is Essential
• Weekly Challenge And Connect
• Closing Gratitude

Whether you’re in the thick of grief or finally starting to feel like yourself again, there’s a name for where you are and a roadmap waiting for you.

bychanceavenue.com/roadmap

Connect with Elizabeth:

IG: @bychanceavenue

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