Two pregnant entrepreneurs, Rebecca and Gabi, hang with the moderator of the
Women Empowered event, Pretty Padded Room’s Bea Arthur.
Maybe it’s frustration with the digital landscape that’s the new mother of invention. At least, that seemed to be a theme of an October 24 Women Empowered panel discussion on entrepreneurship in which Rebecca and I had the pleasure to take part.
Our fellow panelists: Emily Long and Rachel Greenspan of Quarterlette, an online community that helps 20-something women navigate their post-collegiate lives; Cynthia Schames of the plus-sized fashion site AbbeyPost, and Lisa Winning of HeTexted, which helps users decipher what those enigmatic texts from the guy you’re kinda, sorta seeing.
The duo behind Quarterlette (these ladies remind us so much of our 20-something selves) were frustrated with how the digital universe talked at and about young women; Schames was sick of the ill-fitting polyester fashions that were marketed to plus-sized women, and Winning and her peers just couldn’t make heads or tails of the texts they were receiving at all hours of the day and night.
As for Rebecca and I, we both experienced sudden, tragic loss as young adults and struggled to find online resources about grief that weren’t overtly religious, clinical, patronizing or just plain cheesy. Out of our frustration with the digital landscape —and our belief that camaraderie and community is central to the healing process —Modern Loss was born. You can read more about our site’s origin story here.
Bea Arthur, the founder of the online-therapy site Pretty Padded Room — just in case you thought we resurrected the “Golden Girls” star — was the evening’s moderator. (Bea, incidentally, has been a mentor to us, in the months and weeks leading up to Modern Loss’ launch.) She asked the panelists probing questions about the logistics of launching and sustaining our sites, and drew on her own experience bringing a start-up to life.
Oh, and did we mention that the event took place Dermalogica’s’s flagship store in Soho? The estheticians there were kind enough to prepare goody bags for the dozens of ladies and (sole) gentleman in attendance. And take it from us, kids (and quarter-lifers): Goody bags never get old.
