Raised in a religious and pronatalist French family, author-illustrator Emma Duval (also known as Millennial Emma) knew from a young age that she did not want children. Discovering an online childfree community in early adulthood gave her the language and sense of belonging she needed to embrace the childfree choice and resist the pronatalist pressures from family and religion. Her book Unwed and Unbothered: The Defiant Lives of Single Women Through History highlights women who forged lives beyond marriage and motherhood. Now living in rural France, Emma and her husband enjoy the expansive freedom and choice of their childfree decision.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:

https://www.populationbalance.org/beyond-pronatalism-podcast/emma

Interested in being on the show? Submit your story here: https://www.populationbalance.org/beyond-pronatalism-podcast.

About Beyond Pronatalism

To have or not have kids is one of the biggest decisions we make in our lives, and yet how many of us know that we even have a choice about how we define and create our families?

Beyond Pronatalism host Nandita Bajaj interviews people from diverse backgrounds who are courageously and creatively navigating pronatalism - the powerful pressures to have children - whether from family, friends, or the culture at large. Through intimate conversations, they discuss how they are forging unconventional pathways to fulfillment, including redefining what family means to them - whether that means being childfree or childless, having biological children, adopting or fostering children or animals, or creating close-knit communities of friends and loved ones.

Beyond Pronatalism is brought to you by Population Balance - the only nonprofit organization advancing the rights and wellbeing of people, animals, and the planet by confronting pronatalism and other harmful ideologies.

Visit https://www.populationbalance.org/beyond-pronatalism-podcast to subscribe, learn more, and submit your story!

Episodes released every two weeks. Find us on Apple podcasts, Spotify, and all other podcast platforms.

Copyright 2024-2026 Population Balance