I'm an editor, a feature writer, an essayist, an author. And I’m a reader. (Scratch the surface of anything I’m doing, and chances are excellent that I’d probably rather be reading.)

At the heart of everything I do? Words. Words matter. They’re never “just” words. And I never just treat them that way.

I began my career as a magazine editor, working at Child, American Baby, a zippy U.K. health magazine called Zest, Fitness, Bridal Guide, and All Woman. I went from taking messages on little pink “while you were out” pads and typing up (on a typewriter!) copy to send to the repro houses (look it up); to editing on a screen, to managing staffs and budgets.

For many years, as I raised my sons, I also ran my own editorial business. I wrote features for Fitness, Redbook, Parents, Parenting, Woman’s Day, Better Homes & Gardens and many other print pubs. I penned a “Mom Advice” column for American Baby. Like many of my print magazine peers, I pivoted to digital storytelling, writing countless stories for outlets such as WomansDay.com, DailyWorth.com, EverydayHealth.com, and many others. And I began writing more widely for custom content outlets, writing for major health systems such as Inova, Johns Hopkins, and others. For a time, I managed a monthly series of articles about food, health, fitness and more for Panera.com, and crafted several mini-magazines/menus for the physical restaurants (That’s where my favorite headline comes from: Kale Yeah!).

While my boys were still school-age, I began a blog called Confessions of a Mean Mommy, which led to the publication of my first nonfiction book, Mean Moms Rule: Why Doing the Hard Stuff Now Creates Good Kids Later, published in 2012 by Sourcebooks. Eventually, I returned to my roots as an editor, working as a features editor for a health and medical website, as a copy editor for a major New York based hospital and medical school. Now, I’m editorial director of Onward Publishing, a custom publisher of print, web, and video content.