Building a jenX Movement
by Jennifer Cooper
photo by Dave Cooper
“I’ve created this spot, the space where those of us who ask too many questions, those of us who want more, those of us who are here to squeeze the juice out of life, even throughout middle age. This is for us.”
If you’ve been around here for a minute, you know that we’re in the process of evolving. We’ve brought in a lot more voices (which was always my dream), are building relationships with sponsors (this is thrilling), and we’re implementing systems that take us from a shy experiment to We are a mothereffin’ independent, woman-owned media company!
None of this would be possible without an incredible team of people who believe in what we’re doing here, including you. Which, come to think of it, What are we doing here?
This was the exact topic of conversation I recently had with Felly Day on the Unprofessional Entrepreneur.
Great name for a podcast, right!?
If you don’t know Felly, she’s a CEO and Content Strategist who helps entrepreneurs grow and market themselves and their services in a way that feels good for them. I have been recommending her podcast to everyone because we all need to market ourselves in ways that feel good for us whether we’re entrepreneurs or not. Plus, her guests are fantastic, and Felly’s advice is both powerful and light at the same time.
When I sat down with her, I wasn’t sure what would happen. We’d never met. But what transpired was magic.
Here are a few highlights:
On why we don’t do a print version
You know, number one, I don't think that there's a market for it. And number two, I work largely with other women and they need a flexible schedule and I like a flexible schedule. We all like a flexible schedule these days. We're moving into this era that is I think, you know, kind of this evolution. So we are not doing things the old guard way.
On developing jennifer’s mission & voice
When we were young, we were fed these ideas like how to please a man, how to stay thin, you know, how to dress for your age and all these types of things. And what I love is using this vehicle as a way to show there are other ways to do it.
On being controversial
It's interesting to me because this idea that these could be controversial, right? So to me, it's just reacting to the times and the progression that we're moving forward.
I think part of it is where I live, who my friends are, what I've experienced in my lifetime, where I see things going in the future and being a mother and having adult daughters, like I want them to live in a world in which there is more freedom for them. And right now in the U.S., we are really having this backlash to that.
And part of it is my personality, too. I think I've always, always been that person who questioned a lot and then asked, why are we doing this? Because there's such a better way.
On personal identities changing across the decades
I'm 47 years old and I've only just started to feel like this whole magazine is, like, my first passion where I'm going all in.
I think 30 for me, I was raising kids at that time. I was juggling a lot of identities. And I don't know if that's because I had kids or if it's because that was just who I'm meant to be. And I think if we can lean into the idea—which is very, very hard because of the societal conditioning that we've been under, to think like you do X, Y, and Z happens—if we can lean into the idea that we have stepped into a new world. It is okay to be experimenting. In fact, that is what we are here to do, you know, feeding our curiosity. If we can be like, “No, this is my work right now,” hopefully it will make your thirties a little easier.
And finally, this gem
These are big ideas for, like, a magazine. Like, what am I doing? What am I doing!? This is a magazine!
Plus, there’s laughing, there’s crying, there’s all the things that make life good and rich. Give it a listen, share it with a friend, and let Felly and I know what you think.