I left New York, moved to Boston, and had 3 kids. Along the way, I built a career that looks nothing like the one I planned.

The author pictured a completely different career for herself when she was young.

Courtesy of Jenn Sinrich I always wanted to work at magazines, but when I did, it wasn't quite what I imagined.

I wanted to write more, and went freelance.

Then, my husband and I moved from New York to Boston.

While building our family, I also built a career I love.

As a teenager, I'd sit on my bed flipping through glossy magazines, fascinated and completely absorbed by the empowering stories about women.

The news felt dominated by men, but magazines seemed to offer a different world — one where women's lives, bodies, careers, and opinions were worthy of entire pages.

I knew from an early age I wanted to help bring more of those stories to life.

In 2012, after studying journalism at Northeastern University, I moved to New York City as quickly as I could, interning at Ladies' Home Journal and Self , then gravitating toward parenting publications including What To Expect, American Baby, and Fit Pregnancy.

Motherhood fascinated me long before I became a mother .

It was the same intrigue and interest that drew me to magazines — the power of women, what their bodies could do, and the enormity of the identity shift involved in raising a child.

Writing about pregnancy and parenting somehow felt very natural to me, even when I understood both mostly in theory.

The author decided to go freelance so she could write more.

Courtesy of Jenn Sinrich I loved editing, but I wanted to write Working at magazines wasn't quite how I'd imagined it from my childhood bedroom .