On Realism and Healthy Roots: Yelitsa Jean-Charles
I love people who cut to the chase: This is who I am; take it or leave it. Yelitsa Jean-Charles is one such woman. In the few months I’ve known her, I’ve grown to love our short-and-sweet exchanges at Union Hall: two tired-but-happy entrepreneurs with big dreams, high expectations, and serious sweet tooths. We finally got a chance to sit down for an interview, and the artist-turned-entrepreneur was everything I knew she’d be: snarky (her words), unapologetic, honest. Read on to meet the founder of Healthy Roots Dolls, a budding company dedicated to bringing diversity and empowerment straight to the toy aisles of America.
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Your Cincinnati Outdoor Summer Workout Guide
Summertime Cincy is in full swing. The days are long, the temps are high, and there is no shortage of outdoor activities… CincyStateofBeing curated a list of ongoing opportunities to get moving this summer and enjoy the great outdoors. Get your calendars out!
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#SerendipityScrapbook Challenge
Hello! My name is Kate Ducey and I am the current editorial resident here at Women of Cincy.
Part of being a resident is completing a capstone, so for my capstone, I've decided to reach out to Women of Cincy readers!
My capstone is titled "The Serendipity Scrapbook" and it is all about getting people to look at their everyday lives differently through a series of small challenges.
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Making Friends at 30
I still remember my first real friend. His name was Collin. Our common interests included peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, “Sesame Street,” catching worms, and hogging the monkey bars from our preschool classmates. We became besties at age 3 simply because his cot was next to mine, and I saw him every weekday from 8 to 5. It was that easy. Now, at the age of 30, it’s a bit different.
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On Second Thought: Catching up with Kiana Trabue
With both public health and community engagement experience, Kiana Trabue has a unique perspective on how we define health in our community. Since we last talked to her in June 2017, she’s taken on a new challenge as executive director, Gen-H, at The Health Collaborative, where she’s leading a project with the “simple” goal of transforming health and healthcare through collective impact.
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Lily Turner & Anh Tran: Shaking Cincy up Together
We meet at Liberty’s Bar & Bottle, home to many of Lily and Anh’s best ideas. It’s an innocent enough starting point for a simple after-work get-together. But with Lily and Anh, a simple get-together can just as often turn into an unplanned meeting of top-tier movers and shakers planning out the next great idea for the city. I’ve been there, and it happens.
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Scenes from the City: Homeadow Song Farm’s Vicki Mansoor
As soon as I pull up to Homeadow Song Farm, I know the homestead is no stranger to me; the energy is too welcoming and sweet. I step out of my pollen-covered Corolla, trip on a rock, look around with my mouth agape, and see Vicki Mansoor looking at me as she walks down the stairs.
Vicki is the natural beauty of the land, disguised as a human being. I feel unnatural with a camera hanging from my neck: There is just no way to capture that kind of beauty. Not even words can, but I will try to explain.
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Tackling Hunger Differently: Meet Chef Suzy DeYoung
Suzy DeYoung is a chef with a deep culinary heritage. After studying French and business at University of Cincinnati and training as a chef in Paris, she ran a successful catering business, La Petite Pierre, with her sister. Today, Suzy runs La Soupe, a nonprofit founded to rescue food from grocery stores, farms, and food purveyors that would otherwise be wasted. La Soupe takes a chef driven approach to turn that food into healthy, nutritious meals, which are then donated to schools and community agencies throughout Cincinnati.
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Halting the Chain Reaction of Overthinking
We’ve all been there. Something happens. An action. Mid conversation with a friend, you say something you find important. After the action, there is a reaction. Your friend briefly responds, and then changes topics. After the reaction is your perception of the reaction. You interpret your friend’s response as unsupportive or dismissive, that she’s uninterested. And then after the action, the reaction, and your perception come your thoughts.
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Nia Baucke: Self-Care and the City
We sat down with Nia Baucke outside Clark Montessori in Hyde Park in March and kept our fingers crossed that it would be one of the rare sunny days of spring. It was a quiet morning as a nearby lacrosse practice was ending and we settled down on a bench to get our conversation started. It quickly became clear that the founder of Cypress Beauty was passionate about that project, but Nia refuses to be defined solely by her work.
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Raised By Women, Chapter 1: Dr. Sandra Combs
I’m overjoyed to see Dr. Sandra Combs walk through the door of Roebling Point Books & Coffee on a rainy Sunday morning in February. I’m good friends with her whole vivacious family, and while she stands in line for a large coffee, we gush about her daughter Emily, who just found out she’ll be having a baby girl this June. We make our way to the comfy armchairs in the next room, and as she begins to tell me about her journey – sharing her gift as a speech pathologist, finding a home in Covington, and more – her bracelets jingle like a soundtrack to her words.
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Rachel Hodesh: Stories on Life and Aging
Rachel began her career in geriatric care at Glen Manor Home for the Aged in Bond Hill. She has a master’s degree in health and human services and is a licensed nursing home administrator, but she will tell you that her best experience – where she learned the most about aging – was working in Israel and the Chicago Housing Authority. Today, Rachel works for Queen City Home Care as a geriatric care manager and marketing coordinator, crediting her long career to the many seniors who have touched her life over 25 years. She’s a huge piece of the stories of innumerable seniors throughout Cincinnati.
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Mastering the Art of Giving Up
As children, we’re taught to never give up, to never quit, to always keep trying. But sometimes, giving up is exactly what we need to do. Sometimes, giving up is the healthiest thing we can do.
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Rachel Roberts: Leap and Trust
A happy childhood didn’t keep Rachel Roberts from leaving her hometown of Cincinnati the moment high school was over. From her start as a ski bum and whitewater rafting guide to her positions in the corporate world, she built a life in Colorado that hit all the adult milestones – some good, some not so good. She married, divorced, and discovered yoga. But it was on a solo trip around the world where she finally found her future and her way back home.
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True Self-Care: It’s Not All Wine and Chocolate
It’s official. Our society has screwed up self-care. Don’t believe me? Do a quick Pinterest search. You’ll be inundated with perfectly staged, beautifully filtered photos of organic hand-poured soy candles, impeccably decorated acai bowls, and robe clad women sipping bubbly at a lavish spa day. Of course, I want an eight-hour spa day followed by a glass of champagne. That sounds lovely.
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Morgan Owens: A Babe in Business
On a rainy morning, we sat down with Morgan Owens, entrepreneur and founder of Curvy Cardio. Morgan brought her own sunshine to the conversation as she spoke about helping young women boost their self-esteem and empowering them to be better every day.
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The Expense – and Complexity – of Fast Fashion
Clothing is a part of our everyday lives. Aside from being an instrument of modesty, it is a form of self-expression. We’re often quick to judge someone based on their choice of apparel because our style is a public statement about who we are. For many of us, shopping is our favorite stress-relieving activity. We all love a little bit of retail therapy, which is understandable. But our shopping habits can have detrimental consequences. Have you ever thought about where your clothes come from?
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