#5SmartReads - March 27, 2023

Olivia on joining the circus, a secret to staying organized, and where teen girls hang out

March 27, 2023

Olivia Howell is the co-founder and CEO of Fresh Starts Registry, the first and only platform for everything you need to begin again, including divorce or breakup, moving, career changes, stepping into your truth, or starting again after grief. After her own divorce in 2019, Olivia had an 'aha moment' when she realized that we celebrate weddings and babies with a registry, but in the moments we really need to restock our life, like divorce, job loss, or any brave decision and major life change, we need the support, both in the form of support items for your home and the experts who become our hype team. From there, Fresh Starts Registry was born, the first Support Registry and Divorce Registry - and the only platform which aggregates support experts for all life changes and supports the Fresh Starts Experts in their marketing, business, and public relations.

Olivia currently lives in Huntington with her two amazing boys. In her spare time, she loves to co-host A Fresh Story Podcast, watercolor, make handmade cards, read about generational trauma, listen to 90s music, and collect crystals.

Imagine running away to the circus...for some people, like Jack Lepiarz, it's not just a dream, but his reality!

I absolutely loved this piece by Jack about his decision to give up his "traditional" life and join the circus. As a child who grew up in the circus, Jack felt most at home there, and this piece outlines his decision making process - and how he's found himself a niche in the circus world - which includes a huge social media following.

At Fresh Starts we have two life rules: are you safe? Are you in the pursuit of joy? Jack very much is in the pursuit of joy and this piece is inspiring and made me smile. What would you do today if you could? What's stopping you?

So, what's the secret to staying organized? As Lauren Wellbank outlines in this Martha Stewart piece, it may come down to our personality type! I'm not surprised by this, as I've learned so much about my organizational style when I was diagnosed with ADHD at 37 and took the time to learn more about my learning and executive functioning.

As Lauren says,

"According to our experts, the secret to getting and staying organized involves creating a system that speaks to your personality traits—which is good news for anyone who has struggled to follow more conventional methods in the past."

Fresh Starts Expert Shantae is featured in this piece, and breaks down the different organizational styles based on personality types - it's fascinating to observe the difference in them all! What is your organizational style?

Stop the presses! Big news! Vinyl records are outselling CDs for the first time since 1987!

Alright, let's dial this back for a moment and look at the facts - as this NPR piece says, 2022 "marked the 16th consecutive year of growth in vinyl, with 41 million albums sold — compared to 33 million CDs."

I know I've seen the rise of vinyl like crazy in the last decade. My ex-husband was a musician and we saw friends of his left and right choosing to produce their music on vinyl before anything else! Have you noticed that even stores like Barnes and Noble have vinyl sections now? It's so interesting, right?

Do you buy vinyl records - does anyone use CDs anymore? Obviously streaming music is queen, but, I can understand why people are choosing to go back to simpler mediums! Do you own a record player?

Architecture defines the culture - and this piece from Bloomberg was fascinating to me. As someone who once was a young teen girl - and spent a lot of time hanging out at the mall and in people's basements, I was drawn to this piece and the question of "where do girls hang out in public spaces?"

This is a loaded question - because when it comes to teens, girls especially, the spaces have to consider safety, but - it begs the question - where do teen girls hang out, and why don't we design spaces for them? There's so much to be said about this, and as the piece says, "Basketball courts, skate parks and playgrounds overlook an important demographic: teenage girls. A burgeoning design movement is trying to fix that."

A fascinating look into urban planning, architecture, culture, and feminism - a very good read!

Have you noticed a rise in people intentionally choosing to be single? I certainly have, and this Insider piece seems to back up the decision by reminding us that there may be scientific reasons that being single is great!

As Fresh Starts Expert and therapist, Bonnie Scott says in this piece, "singletons make all their own decisions, which leads to more freedom and a better ability to balance responsibilities."

Being single can be so empowering - and I love that this piece reminds people that there's data to prove that being single is a fantastic life decision, if that's what you want! Have you noticed more people deciding to be intentionally single? I'm curious!

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