Stories about infertility.

Stories about being childfree by choice.

Stories about caregiving, step-parenting, grief, freedom, reinvention, identity, and all the complicated emotions that come with building a life that doesn’t always follow the path we expected.

When we first started The Otherhood Collective, our focus was on amplifying those voices.

What we didn’t anticipate was how much those conversations would change us, too.

Again and again, we found ourselves hearing pieces of our own stories reflected back to us.

Not because our experiences were the same, but because the themes were.

Loss.

Hope.

Belonging.

The pressure of expectations.

The freedom that can come from letting go of them.

The courage it takes to imagine a different future than the one you planned.

For our entire careers, we stayed behind the camera, asking the questions.

Then one day we realized something.

We were asking people to share stories that we hadn’t fully shared ourselves.

That’s how our Founders Episode came to be.

Not because our story is more important than anyone else’s, but because it felt important to acknowledge that The Otherhood Collective wasn’t created from theory or observation.

It was created from lived experience.

From our own questions.

Our own grief.

Our own growth.

And our own desire to create the kind of space we wish we’d had when we were navigating some of life’s hardest chapters.

If you haven’t watched it yet, we’d love to invite you to spend some time with our Founders Story.

🎥 Watch the Founders Episode

A Featured Voice: Mandy Ingber

One of the things we love most about this work is the opportunity to connect with women whose stories expand the conversation around what it means to live a meaningful life.

This month, we’re highlighting our conversation with Mandy Ingber.

Many people know Mandy as the bestselling author, wellness expert, and yoga teacher who has worked with celebrities including Jennifer Aniston, Brooke Shields, Kate Beckinsale, and Helen Hunt. But what resonated most with us wasn’t her impressive resume.

It was her perspective.

Throughout her career, Mandy has encouraged women to stop measuring themselves against someone else’s timeline and instead focus on creating a life that feels authentic to who they are.

Her story touches on identity, fulfillment, self-worth, and the many different ways a woman can create purpose and meaning in her life.

Themes we know will feel familiar to many in this community.

We’re honored she shared her story with us.

🎥 Watch Mandy’s Interview

Looking Ahead

One of the things we’re most excited about with this newsletter is the opportunity to go deeper.

Each month, we’ll be sharing reflections, revisiting conversations from our YouTube channel, highlighting voices from our community, and exploring the themes that continue to surface across so many different stories.

Thank you for being here.

Thank you for listening.

And thank you for reminding us, every day, that there are so many ways to build a beautiful life.

With gratitude,

Lisa & Sarah

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If you’re new here, we’re Lisa and Sarah, the founders of The Otherhood Collective. This is a storytelling platform and community created to explore the many ways people experience identity, womanhood, parenthood, family, belonging, and “otherness” outside traditional expectations.

Over the past year, we’ve been sharing stories from people across all walks of life. Stories about infertility, childlessness, being childfree by choice, step-parenting, caregiving, reinvention, grief, freedom, adoption, relationships, purpose, and the realities of building a meaningful life that may not look the way we once imagined.

What started as a few honest conversations has slowly become something much bigger: a community of people looking for connection, representation, understanding, and space to tell the truth about their experiences.

And now, we’re excited to expand that conversation here.

This Substack will be a place where we can go deeper. A place to amplify more voices, share reflections, highlight resources, explore research and cultural conversations, and continue building a space where people feel seen and not explained away, minimized, or made to feel “less than” because their lives don’t fit into one specific narrative.

We want this space to feel thoughtful, honest, evolving, and human.

If you’re just finding us, we’d love for you to start with our founders story and explore the conversations we’ve been sharing over the last year across our platforms.

You can find us here:

YouTube: @TheOtherhoodCollective
Instagram: @theotherhoodcollective
TikTok: @theotherhoodcollective

Thank you for being here. Truly.

Whether you’ve been with us since the beginning or just stumbled upon this space today, we’re grateful you found your way here.

There is room for your story too.