May 7, 2025 • 50 mins
Elaine Welteroth had already made a name for herself as a trailblazer—breaking glass ceilings as the youngest-ever and first Black Editor-in-Chief of Teen Vogue, elevating the conversation around politics and culture in fashion media, and later stepping into new roles as a bestselling author and Project Runway judge. But it was motherhood that sparked her most personal and powerful pivot yet. In this episode, Elaine opens up about the challenges of her pregnancy journey, how discovering midwifery care changed everything, and why she launched birthFUND—an initiative aimed at tackling America’s maternal health crisis by expanding access to affirming birth care. This Mother’s Day, we celebrate the pivots that are born from love, challenge, and resilience—just like Elaine’s.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Elaine Welteroth (00:00):
Welcome back to She Pivots. I'm Elaine Welterroth.
Emily Tisch Sussman (00:13):
Welcome back to She Pivots, the podcast where we talk
with women who dare to pivot out of one career
and into something new and explore how their personal lives
impacts these decisions. I'm your host, Emily Tish Sussman. Today,
in honor of Mother's Day, we're celebrating the strength, resilience
(00:35):
and power of mothers by highlighting someone who was working
to create a safer, more supportive future for them. Elaine Welterroth.
Elaine and I have been orbiting around each other right
when I launched she Pivots. Elaine's ind an instagram live
all about pivoting and it was sent to me about
one hundred times. And finally we got to connect just
(00:56):
the other week when Gotham FC played in LA and
we immediately bonded. I invited her to the game with us.
It was her first night out since having her second baby,
so despite my jet lag and her sleepless nights, we
just clicked. Like Elaine says later in the episode, it
felt like we had found each other's pivot Aliens. Elaine
(01:18):
is best known from little places like oh, you know, Project. Runway,
Teen Vogue and more.
Always a trail blazer, Elaine made history as the youngest
ever editor in chief of teen Vogue. She left an
indelible mark on the magazine and the industry as a
whole when she included coverage of politics and social justice
issues and encouraged readers to become specifically engaged. At the
(01:41):
height of her career in the magazine world, Elaine made
a bold pivot. She left the print media world behind,
stepping into a new chapter as a best selling author
of her book More Than Enough and a judge on
the iconic show Project Runway. But her most personal and
powerful pivot came after her own pregnancy and birth experience.
(02:03):
Throughout those nine months, Elaine saw firsthand the deep inequities
facing mothers in America. After going from doctor to doctor
and being ignored and dismissed, Elaine found Midwhiffery. She finally
felt heard and soon had a beautiful birth under the
care of for Jula. Then she looked at the statistics.
Research suggests that midwiffery care can avert more than eighty
(02:25):
percent of maternal and infant debts, and with the maternal
health crisis, that didn't seem to look like it was
getting any better. Elaine decided to launch birth Fund, a
groundbreaking initiative that aims to expand access to safe and
affirming birth care, including midwiffery, by connecting families with funders
and resources. Elaine's pivot is what this show is all about.
(02:47):
Those deeply personal experiences that stir you into action and
the professional experiences that came before that help you find
success within your pivot. Without Teen Vogue or Project Runway,
she might not have met her investors, Serena Williams and
Carly Klass. Everything builds on itself, and motherhood is no exception.
(03:10):
Happy Mother's Day to all the amazing moms out there.
I hope you enjoyed this special episode with my fellow
pivot alien.
Elaine Welteroth (03:20):
My name is Elaine Welterroth and I do a lot
of things. Among them, I'm the founder of birth Fund,
and I am a journalist, author, and television host.
Emily Tisch Sussman (03:31):
Okay, we're going to back up, go all the way back,
So tell us about little Elaine, Like, what did you
think you were going to be when you grew up?
What was her family like? Like, what was it like
around when you were growing up.
Elaine Welteroth (03:41):
Yeah, So we grew up in the Bay Area, and
my mom and dad are little opposites. But they've been
together gosh, forty years now, forty two years now actually,
and actually together longer. They've been married for forty two years.
And my dad was a carpenter and my mom was
(04:04):
a desk jockey of sorts. And they worked at the
same company, lockeed Martin, And I say desk jockey of
sorts because because she had one of those jobs like
you don't really know what the heck your mom does
as a kid, you know, and I still don't fully understand.
But they worked at lockeed Martin Missiles and Space Company.
So they met there. My dad's mom was my mom's
(04:27):
like manager, and she introduced them and it was just
like a really sweet love story. But yeah, my dad
is this like white rocker, hippie kind of guy, and
my mom is this like black church going, southern raised
kind of more traditional lady. And they could not be
more opposites, but they produced a household that was incredibly eclectic. Musically,
(04:53):
they bolt what they have in common is music. My
mom's a gospel singer. My dad, as I said, it's
like an acoustic rock guitar player, and my brother is
a punk rocker and so and I was like this
kind of like goodie two shoes, like junior and senior
class president. I ran track, I was a cheerleader, I
like did all the things. So yeah, we were just
(05:15):
a bunch of like we were a study of contrast
for sure. But my household was very liberal and very
open minded, open hearted. My parents were super encouraging of
me and my brother in terms of just exploring our
passions in life, and they didn't put us in any boxes.
You know, we were really we felt really free to
(05:36):
be and explore who we were and what made us happy.
And in hindsight, like that was probably one of the
greatest blessings of my childhood.
Emily Tisch Sussman (05:44):
But in a world where value is placed on more
traditional metrics of success, like a degree from a top university,
Elaine felt like she wasn't prepared in that way.
Elaine Welteroth (05:55):
It's like I wanted to go to Stanford, that was
like my dreams, well, but I had no freaking idea
how to get there, no freaking idea how to pay
for it, and so then I ended up not even applying,
for example, or like SATs I didn't even know people
studied for SATs. I didn't know how you study for SATs.
I didn't know when they were happening. I didn't know
how to approach it. I don't know there were tutors.
I didn't know other people were like thinking about this,
(06:18):
and like at my school, we just didn't really there
there was no push or prioritization around things like this.
So even though I pushed myself a lot, there were
things I didn't know that made me feel like unprepared
in certain ways. Like I remember going into my SATs
and having like a full on panic attack, like full
in hindsight, I realized that's probably what it was, and
(06:42):
I just, you know, like I just didn't feel prepared.
I just remember like having this moment of hearing everybody's
pencils racing, and I couldn't even think. I couldn't like
process the question. I was just like so overwhelmed and intimidated,
and I cried my eyes out when I got home
because I was just I just knew that I bombed and.
(07:05):
I did bomb it.
And then that test score was something that kind of
hit my confidence. And I never even applied to my
dream schools. But listen, life comes full circle. Luckily things
worked out as they should, and I was able to
do all the things and so much more without having
that Stanford College degree.
Emily Tisch Sussman (07:25):
My thesis in starting this show was thinking about the
fact that all of these and I felt like I
kept hearing this conversation of new moms, and I kept
hearing this refrain of oh, well I did do this,
but that's all a waste now. My career was this,
but that's all aways now, And I was like, but
that can't be true, Like, couldn't this have built us
(07:47):
towards what we're in now or what we're ready for
the next chapter. So you know, even as you're talking
through all of these pieces like you wish you were
better prepared for it, it sounds like it did really
build within you a lot of confidence and you had
to navigate situations on your own, which I imagine then
gave you those skills for later on.
Elaine Welteroth (08:08):
You know what, thank you for that reframe, because it's
incredibly true and healthy. And I let me put it
this way. In order to navigate your path in life
and in career with a sense of purpose, you have
to nurture that muscle. It's not something you just come
to this world. I mean, even if you do come
to this world knowing exactly who you are and what
(08:30):
you want to be, the world will strip that away
from you. Like little by little, you will get put
in boxes, told what you're able to do, what you're
not supposed to do, what's expected of you, what's not
expected of you, And like you know, there's this quote,
there's this statistic that I used when I was writing
my book more Than Enough, and it really it's something
(08:50):
that I come back to a lot. It's this idea
that girls' confidence peaks at age nine in this country.
And so I think about myself as a little girl,
and I was super confident, like I wanted to do everything.
I felt like I could do anything, could be good
at everything, and had tons of friends and was in
(09:10):
all the things. And then I do remember this like
chipping away. And it wasn't because of my family, It
wasn't because of how I was parented. It was the
world that I was exposed to, and it was the
boyfriends that I was dealing with and the impact they
had on my self esteem. And so I do think
thankfully like I got the opportunity to strengthen that muscle
(09:35):
of figuring out how to get back to that confident
girl and how to make decisions that felt right in
my spirit and that felt like purposeful, And you know,
so I feel so blessed that I had the opportunity
to figure out some things on my own early on
and make some mistakes early on that helped me redirect
(09:55):
myself again and again back to what feels most true,
most right, most in alignment with my calling.
Emily Tisch Sussman (10:06):
Without a Stanford degree, but connected to her desires, she
graduated from college with the BA in Communications and Journalism.
She got to work and applied to her dream publications
multiple times. As her former boss at Ebony, Harriet Cole, accounts.
Archival (10:24):
Because she is relentless, and I met her because there
was an on slot of communications from her when she
had just finished college and wanted to intern with me
when I was working to revitalize Ebony magazine. He said
it was super professional and focused the entire time, so
(10:45):
I knew I had a winner. I only had to
get her at three thousand miles across the country and
we were talking about the internship, so I had to
be really created.
Emily Tisch Sussman (10:55):
Was it always going to be fashion for you or
was it journalism and you found fashion, which was the
one you were driving towards.
Elaine Welteroth (11:02):
Such a great question, and the answer is absolutely, it
was about storytelling for me. It was not about necessarily
fashion or beauty. I fell into fashion, beauty and actually
a beauty and style opportunity, And of course I was
always interested in that. Like, don't get me wrong, I've
always had like a really good eye. I've always I've
(11:25):
always loved style. I definitely have a proclivity towards that.
But really the driving force was I wanted to sell stories.
I wanted to I wanted to write cover stories. That's
what when I was a little girl, I would go
straight to the cover stories section of every magazine. And
I also growing up, I read Essence magazine, which had
this column from the editor in chief called in the
(11:47):
Spirit from Susan Taylor, and she was like my editorial icon.
I read everything that she wrote. It was always very
inspirational and spiritual and grounded, but like contextual in this
really like elevated styleized lifestyle way. And so that's what
framed my kind of perspective on journalism, the kind of
(12:09):
journalism I wanted to do. But I certainly fell into
the fashion and beauty space and learned so much. I
will say most people don't know. It's kind of insider baseball,
but being a beauty director is the most common fast
track to becoming an editor in chief. So like, don't
sleep on beauty editors because people think that you're just
sitting there like playing with products at your desk. But
(12:31):
in beauty ads are what power and pay for magazines
like you know, I mean especially women's magazines. They got
big budgets, and so you are the one who is
more front facing than most editors. You're going out on
pitch call, sales calls with the sales team, You're learning
how to you know, back in the day, I was
(12:51):
doing what we now call branded content. So I learned
so much about the business of storytelling, specifically in publishing,
from being a beauty editor. And I'm so grateful that
I came up through that path because it's so much
more than lip glass and mascaret. Let me tell you so,
in my perfect world, I would have had the career
(13:14):
trajectory that I had, truly like, which was to touch
it all, to touch it all, and to come in
through the door of beauty and fashion because again, There's
so many things that you learn along the way. There's
so many people you get to connect to. Like that
role puts you out in the world way more than
other editorial jobs, you know, Like I had to fight
as a lowly intern at Ebony to get like front
(13:37):
row seats and access to backstage at all of these shows,
and even that's a skill set, you know. And then
working the rooms at those places and making sure that
the magazine that you represent is properly represented, like there's There's,
and then the call ins for the I mean, I
literally did twenty five people's jobs before I turned twenty five.
(13:58):
So it equipped me in so many ways, not just
for success in the magazine world, but for success truly
in anything. I really think any a magazine editor can
run almost anything, Like you truly have to be a
jack of all trades to be an editor in chief.
Emily Tisch Sussman (14:18):
So you ended up as the editor young of teen Vogue.
How did that happen? What changed when you got there?
Going given you had done a number of these jobs,
but probably not all the jobs once you became the
editor in chief teen Vogue?
Elaine Welteroth (14:32):
Oh yeah, absolutely so, I mean, gosh, there's so much,
so much ground to cover, but to try to put
it succinctly, I went from Ebony to Glamour to teen
Vogue as Beauty director, beauty and Health director to editor
in chief. And that last jump at teen Vogue took
(14:54):
about I think five or five years or so. I
was actually the beauty direct or longer than I was
the editor in chief. I learned the ropes and did
that job, or I learned the ropes at teen Vogue
through doing that job. First, I came in after Eva Chen,
and a lot of the change that people credit me
(15:17):
with from my time at teen Vogue as editor in
chief really happened before, Like the groundwork was laid before
I got appointed. So the first hire that I made
was or one of my first hires was Philip Occarty
who became the digital director, Marie Souter who was the
creative director, all along with someone I was constantly working
(15:38):
really close with, and we all were promoted together. And
so we had and because of Amy Astley, who was
the incredible editor in chief at teen Vogue, founding editor
in chief, she was so incredible as a leader and
that she gave these young people positions of authority and
trusted us. She guided us, but it was it was
(16:00):
similar to my parents. Actually it was it was like
I've had different types of leadership above me, and you know,
I've had another you know leader who or other leaders
who have been more kind of micromanagy or like on
top of you and have a very clear picture of
exactly what needs to happen, and they tell you and
you're more executing their direction. But in the case of
(16:21):
teen Vogue, we had a lot of space to figure
out what we wanted to say and we were super
supported in saying that, and that wasn't something I was
necessarily expecting or that I think she, or teen Vogue
or Vogue in general, has gotten a lot of credit for.
I think you think you think of that environment as
like devil worst Prada. There's like there must be someone
(16:43):
telling you no and you know, telling what you can
and can't do. But it was actually the opposite. It
felt very creatively empowering. I remember when I got there,
I was like, what she would just give me like
an okay, Amy Asley okay. That was like her little
sign off on pieces and it would just be like
positive feedback and aaoka, and I was just like, what
(17:06):
so we can just really do like we can tell
the stories you want to tell, and so that was
that had had a lot to do with how and
why we were able to find this new direction for
teen Vogue before the moment came where, you know, it
was like our watershed moment where everybody suddenly realized that
teen Vogue was doing different kinds of work than that
(17:29):
we had been previously. We used to be kind of
more fashion and beauty focused for really privileged young kids,
you know, young people, and we saw the world changing
and we wanted to change with it. We had to
change with it. It was kind of like change, you
evolve or die. At that point, it was around twenty fifteen,
twenty fourteen, fifteen, sixteen seventeen, like around there, it's like
(17:51):
the whole world changed so fast. At fourteen years old,
teen Vogue is growing.
Archival (17:57):
Up watch a junior fashion bible, geared towards brand conscious teams.
Teen Vogue is evolving seriously on issues ranging from immigration,
the Muslim band, and climate change, even taking on President Trump.
Teen Vogue is forming and to be this kind of
powerhouse incubator that takes young activists and puts them in
(18:17):
front of other young people and says you can do
this too.
Elaine Welteroth (18:21):
So it was it was white space. It was a
missed opportunity, and we wanted to seize the moment to
deepen our connection with our audience and have different kinds
of conversations and expand the intersection a bit to include
different types of young people. And so we just pushed
the envelope and we were supported in doing so. And
(18:42):
then by the time I became editor in chief, it
was like a rocket ship because we had been working
diligently for years to kind of change the kinds of
storytellers that were coming in and the types of stories
we were telling, and then we had kind of carte
blanche to take off. We did. It took off like
a rocket, and suddenly all eyes were on Teen Vogue
(19:04):
and we kind of really met the moment in a
way that was really palpable, and I think shifted the
trajectory of not just Teen Vogues legacy, but I think
a number of other magazines and how they saw their responsibility,
if you will, in terms of having to step up
into some of these conversations and issue areas that maybe
(19:29):
previously they would have seen as like outside of their purview,
you know, the sort of felt like this church's not
all magazines. I'm not just and I'm not trying to
take credit or say that teen Vogue is the only
one that was doing this. Certainly there's so many magazines,
even including Vogue, including you know, Marie Claire Elle. All
of these women's magazines have never gotten enough credit for
(19:49):
the ways that they have covered news, politics and cultural
events like all along. But it was never really spotlighted,
and it wasn't totally encouraged. It always felt like, oh,
nice for these pretty ladies with good style to be
weighing in, but this isn't This isn't your place, you
know what I mean. There was always that sense that
(20:09):
it wasn't our place, and we were just like following
that youthful spirit of the audience that we talked to,
and like they were like, this is our place, We're
claiming our space, this is it, you know, And so
we kind of followed their lead to just own that
this is where we belong to. We can take up
space here to young people's perspectives matter too.
Emily Tisch Sussman (20:32):
And the world was changing at the same time, to
your point that the audience was growing and the entire
industry of magazines was moving more online, less in print.
Did you feel that coming? Did you know it was
coming to come as a surprise to you?
Like? How did you manage that?
Elaine Welteroth (20:50):
Oh? For sure? I mean the writing was on the
wall from the day I entered the magazine industry, which
is why I always had plans beyond magazines. And the
reason and thankfully the reason for that is I had
a mentor in my first boss, who modeled a what
a multifaceted career could look like that leverages the foundation
(21:12):
of an editorial background, but takes it further. And so
I always joke that like, my first boss was a
multi hyphen it before multi hyphen eating was a thing,
And so because of her influence on me, I was like, oh, okay,
this is just the first step. Magazines are just the
first part of my career, the first chapter and for
(21:33):
the first act rather because there's a lot of chapters
of that one part of my career, but it was
the first act, and I always anticipated subsequent acts like
I never thought this was going to be where I
live and die. I was like there, I was constantly
checking in with myself like is this the time to run?
Is this the time to go? Not run? But I was.
(21:54):
I was sort of putting my finger to the wind
and being like, Okay, is this the moment to take
my leap of faith or do I have more here
to learn and more here to do? And so I
was always in dialogue with myself about that, and then,
particularly as it relates to you know, a teen Vogue's audience,
they were already online by the time I got there
(22:15):
in twenty twelve, so and when I started, there was
only one person working on digital and they were working
on a silo. They were working in a silo on
an island of their own. And then slowly but surely,
that team and the focus kind of shifted, that balance shifted,
and so when I became the editor in chief, I
was responsible for all of it, and I was looking
(22:38):
at teen Vogue as a brand and the opportunities that
we had to grow, and you know, launched teen Vogue Summit,
which was an experiential piece of the business that didn't
exist before. But I saw this really incredible community that
we were galvanizing. I was like, we need to be
bringing them together to connect with each other and to
you know, have these in person touch points. So there
were opportunities to grow but it was very clear to
(23:00):
me that the writing was on the wall around print,
you know, and there being an expiration date, and so yeah,
I mean it was something that we were frankly having
to plan for and it kind of dovetailed really perfectly
and a like kind of in a divine, divine time
for me, because I truly felt like by the time
(23:21):
we knew that the print side was going to be sunset,
I was like, there is so much more for me
to do outside of the magazine business. There is something
else calling me, and I it's go time. Like I
just felt like, you know, when you reach that point
of diminishing returns and you know that you have delivered
against every dream that you had. And then some like
(23:44):
I am a huge proponent of walking at the top
of your mountaintop, like like walking away when you're at
the mountaintop, were in terms of what other people's perception
is of you, and when you know that there is
another mountaintop for you to climb towards, like get busy,
you know, don't stay, don't stay longer than you need
to at that first mountaintop. So yeah, I can say
(24:06):
that I felt a sense of completion during my time
at teen Vogue, like I felt triumphant. I felt like
we did that, We did that, and then you go.
And it's the same thing I felt honestly about New
York in general in twenty twenty, Like when I got
after I got married on my stoop during the pandemic,
I was like, we did that, Like we did that,
(24:28):
and that that is New York, Like there is no
higher mountaintop for me here other than this moment of graduation.
Like this, it felt like a graduation for me, and
I was like, Okay, it's time to set sales for
new pastures. And that's how I ended up moving it
to La kind of it seemed impulsively to most people
because I hadn't. It's not something I had talked about.
(24:48):
But I had always known my New York act would
come to an end and then there would be an
La Act. I just didn't know when it would happen,
And similar with Teen Vogue and magazines in general, I
knew that that act would come to it, and I
just didn't have a sense of the timeline. I didn't
realize how how quickly all of these things would happen,
and so I had to move with the momentum, and
(25:09):
I've never I never once looked back. And it's not
to say it wasn't a hard decision to make. It was.
It was actually excruciating. In some moments, it was really hard.
It was it was hard to pull the trigger. But
the decision in my spirit had already been made that
it was time for me to explore the things that
had been on my heart and like tugging me.
Emily Tisch Sussman (25:30):
When teen Vogue moved to strictly digital, Elaine was famously
quoted saying that wasn't the vision that I had for
the future of teen Vogue. So was her exit tied
to Conde Nast decision? After the break? We get the
real answer was the decision to leave teen Vogue tied
(25:58):
to the decision to sunset the print. But you felt
like you had closed the chapter or now with someone
else's vision. To take forward.
Elaine Welteroth (26:05):
I would say yes and no in the sense that
I was feeling the poll before that decision had been made,
and I felt that sense of completion, like approaching. And
I remember I even sat down and did a little
bucket list assignment when I felt like a year before
(26:26):
I actually left, and I wrote some things on that
list that I really felt called to do before I left,
and I was like, Okay, when I leave, I want
to I want to be able to look at this list.
And no, I did all the things that I that
were in my heart to do. And so it's interesting
because in that year that I got those things off
(26:48):
the ground, including like the teen Bok Summit, as I mentioned,
and also getting Hillary Clinton to guest edit our final issue,
Like I didn't know that was going to be our
final issue, but that's a final issue. If I ever
did one, you know, that's a mic drop right there.
If I was going to manufacture my my drop moment,
it would have looked exactly like the one that I had,
(27:08):
but it wasn't necessarily that orchestrated, if you will. I
think at some point it became clear, okay, like where
what I'm feeling is lining up with what feels like
it makes the most sense as well from a business perspective,
like I felt like expansion energy. I felt like I
am only growing and expanding and wanting and capable of
(27:30):
doing even more. I don't think it makes sense to
stay somewhere that is shrinking. It just it just didn't
make sense. I felt like my territory was getting smaller
as I was expanding, and I just needed my territory
to continue expanding, and the only way for me to
do that was to expand it myself and build my
(27:50):
own path forward.
Emily Tisch Sussman (27:52):
Yeah, So I think getting into the weeds here a
little bit as helpful because I think a lot of
people struggle with the idea of when to leave, when
to move, especially if you're doing okay, Like if you're
not actually forced out, why leave? Like if it's still
going okay? So, how did you it sounds I think
feel like you've talked to this a little bit already,
like how did you know it was the right time?
(28:13):
But how much did you have planned? Oubt in specifics?
And also next game project Runway, which is like a
dream job for so many But was that the thing
that paid the bills? Was that the thing that brought
you joy? Was it both? Was it neither?
Elaine Welteroth (28:33):
Okay, there's so much here. I love the way your
mind works. I love the questions you asked. All right,
let me let me try to go back and answer
them in order, because you you're absolutely right that there's
so many people who are in their own lives and
careers thinking how do I know it's time to move.
Do I leave? Do I stay? So the piece of
advice that I got that was incredibly helpful, if not instrumental,
(28:58):
to some of these pivot pivot moments of mine in
my careers and in relationships, by the way, is to
identify the point of diminishing returns, which means essentially, are
you giving more than you can ever get back from this?
Or is there more for you to give and for
(29:19):
you to have an ROI on right like, is there
more for you to learn? Is there more for you
to do? And so many times when I thought I
was ready to quit, I would ask myself that question
and I would realize that there was actually more for
me to do or there was more for me to learn.
And so I think that is a helpful question to
ask to help distinguish between am I burnt out? Or
(29:44):
am I actually ready to move on to my next thing?
And if the answer is you already move on to
your next thing, I would say you don't do it
without your game plan. And I had a solid game
plan and I had checks up through April of the
following year. I was gung ho about my financial goals.
(30:06):
I wanted to make sure that I could make more
than what I was making at Conde Nas before I
left Conde Nas. And I one of the things that
I learned towards the end of my tenure there was
that like all these speaking engagements I was doing for
free for teen Vogue, people are getting paid for, paid
very well for. And so a paid speaking opportunity came
to me in kind of like my final chapter at
(30:29):
teen Vogue. And normally, like we're trained to just hand
those over to our supervisor to get approval on them,
and of course you cannot accept any payment. But in
this case, I was like, well, I don't think I'm
going to be here when this speaking engagement has happened,
and I'm really I'm giving you like the real tea
right now, Emily, Yeah, ANSI tea. And so I was like,
you know, I'm not going to ask for permission because
(30:51):
I'm not going to be here, and why would I
not take this check What?
And so I started to realize like, once I said
yes to that one, then I realized all these other
opportunities that I was not getting offered a paycheck for
I would and could be getting a paycheck for if
I was a free agent, and so I was quickly
doing the math on that and realizing there was a
lot of opportunity. I also had a book deal. I
(31:14):
had a book that had been writing itself inside of me,
and my first goal was to sell a book deal
with a great advance for teen Vogue. And before I
ever even said the word that I wanted to write
a book, but at every one of the meetings, they
were like, great, great, great, thank you for this pitch
for teen vogues book. What about your book? And it
was such an uncomfortable thing because I was like what what? What? Like?
(31:35):
I mean, I was such a I was so programmed.
I was like and I was like a boy. I
was like wait what me? What? No? I was on
I was so associated with the brand that I was
representing that it felt almost like insane. It felt almost
disloyal or just wrong fundamentally for me to explore opportunities
(31:55):
for myself. But it was a mindset that I had
to break. I had to shift that. And after I
got a successful book deal for teen Vogue, they told
me just know. When I was leaving, they said to me,
just know, we have allocated a budget for your book.
We want your book, and I was like, I mean,
this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to be
(32:16):
in that position, and I know I have a book
in me that I've I always thought I would write
multiple books because of my mentor again going back to
the model that she set for me, the blueprint that
she handed me, that was what she did. I just
didn't think I would have those kinds of opportunities that soon.
If anything, I had to get over my imposter syndrome
like I deserve, like I deserve to write a book
(32:37):
at this or I'm you know, I'm worth what you're
willing to give me to write this book. But that
was my main thing. Emily, Like, it's so funny to
hear you talk about project or a way like that,
because when I tell you, that was so not even
on my radar, and it wasn't even something that was
a hell yes for me at first, because I was like, wait,
I just I had my own reservations about it at first,
(32:59):
and I had to get over some of the reservations
that I had, and especially also because for me, this
was my book writing era, like I left to write
a book and to build into the I knew I
wanted to work in television though I always knew that
I wanted to work in television, but I was imagining
writing as a writer in a writer's room or creating
(33:21):
my own shows. Like I didn't see myself as talent necessarily,
So when this came, I was like, it felt like
too unserious, if that makes any sense.
Emily Tisch Sussman (33:31):
Yeah, I was gonna ask, what are you What were
your reservations?
Elaine Welteroth (33:33):
Yeah, I felt like maybe it was it would it
wouldn't I wouldn't be taken seriously in some of the
other things that I wanted to do if I was
a judge on Project Runway. But at the same time,
thank god, the counsel around me was like, girl, you
are tripping. This is an incredible opportunity. Do this, do
this show. And I never, to be honest, I never
watched Project Runway. So I also felt a little bit
(33:55):
like a imposter syndrome. I had some imposter syndrome about it.
But you know what, Emily, I had never read teen
Vogue before I became an editor at teen Vogue, so
I had it there too. I think, I honestly think
imposter syndrome is a sign that you are on the
right track of growth and you are being pulled into
uncomfortable territory. It does not mean you are not qualified.
(34:17):
It doesn't mean that you don't belong there. It doesn't
mean that you shouldn't do it. It just means that you're
being called to territory that is new and now is
the time to explore it. And so I think there
was some of those some of that was coming up
for me, but ultimately it was the best thing because
it was in every way like the perfect timing and
also just an incredible experience, like I got to do
(34:39):
this with my friends. Carly called me and convinced me
to do it. She's like, we have to do this together. Brandon.
It was like me, Carly and Brandon, and then also
of course Christian, We're just like, we're going to do
this together. We have no idea if this is going
to like work or not. And it turned out to
be my fun job. You ever seen anything like this
(35:00):
Project Runway history face and first this season on Project
run you took us to another galaxy. This was my
favorite love of the Runway hands. I fell in love
with everything about Project Runway, including the fans, Like, can
(35:21):
I just tell you the Project Runway fans are the
best fans in the world, which is why I smiled
and so big when you said you love Project Run.
I was like, you're my people. You're my people, and
so it was an incredible experience and one that served
my larger goals. I guess in the sense that the
timing really worked out well because it aired as soon
as my like a couple months before my book came out,
(35:41):
So it was like this marketing platform for my first book,
and then on top of it, there were a number
of other things I was working on. I was doing
tons of speaking opportunities, doing a lot of brand partnerships,
so it was really again it was like I am
building this portfolio business for myself that really does mimic
exactly what I was doing at a magazine for many years,
(36:03):
because if you think about the role of a magazine editor,
especially a front facing one, you're doing TV, you're doing
sales calls, you're doing branded content, you're managing a creative team,
You're doing all of the things that I was doing
for every magazine I worked for, especially at the as
an editor in chief. At the end, are all the
things I do for myself now.
Emily Tisch Sussman (36:25):
When we come back Elaine talks about how everything she
has done on her career has built her to the
moment she is in now, despite some major pivots. Elaine's
(36:48):
biggest pivot found her when she became pregnant for the
first time at thirty five, and she was confronted with
the horrible reality that is the maternal health crisis.
Archival (36:57):
The Committee will come to order without objection. The Chair
is authorized to declare a recess of the Committee at
any time. I now recognize myself for an opening statement.
Our nation is facing a maternal health crisis across the globe.
Our maternal mortality rate ranks the absolute worst among similar
(37:19):
developed nations and fifty fifth overall.
Elaine Welteroth (37:23):
No matter your socioeconomic position, you can't as a black woman,
escape the risk of becoming a statistic And I never
really understood how real and true that is until it
was my turn. One thing to read the statistics, it's
another to recognize how close you are to becoming worry.
Archival (37:42):
It's a maternal morbidity rate in the United States right
now that is disproportionately affecting black women.
The US maternal Morbidity rate is the highest out of
all industrialized nations.
Emily Tisch Sussman (37:52):
Soon a lane turned to midwiffery and finally felt heard
after hearing truly unbelievable things from doctor these.
Elaine Welteroth (38:00):
Doctors that I went to, I went in and I
asked my questions with a smile. Eventually the doctor stands
up with their clipboard and they start to walk out
in the middle of our conversation. The doctor just said,
you've exceeded our two to three question max per visit.
I've allowed you to ask additional questions. I've given you
some grace.
Emily Tisch Sussman (38:22):
After giving birth to her first baby, Elaine was changed
and knew she could do something about it. So she
started birth Fund as a way to connect women to
midwifery care at little to no cost, providing an end
to end solution to fix the maternal health crisis.
Elaine Welteroth (38:43):
You know what, I would say that most people think
of my big pivot as the one from teen Vogue
to everything that came after, and that was definitely my
first big pivot, And I think about this stage of
my career now is actually not at all like a pivot.
(39:05):
It feels like a culmination moment in my career. It
feels like literally every single thing I've ever done, every
opportunity that I've had every person that I've met, every
skill that I've acquired, has all been for this, like
it comes together in the creation and the birth of
(39:28):
Birth Fund, because I find that it's a very untraditional
path to a nonprofit and even that I don't even
really think of it as a nonprofit. I think of
it as a venture with many legs and will it
will have pivots over time and it will look different
over time. But it's starting as a nonprofit and I'm
(39:49):
not a nonprofit person. It's in a health space. I'm
not a public health person at all. Even if you
asked me what a midwife was like four years ago,
I would not have had an intelligent answer. So I
am a newcomer in every way to this space. But
it's because of all the things that I have done
in my life that uniquely equip me to meet this
(40:12):
moment with such charge and which set with such vision
and conviction. Because it's not dissimilar from what I did
at teen Vogue or any magazine job I ever had.
Right like it in a lot of ways is rooted
in storytelling, and you know, cause related or impact storytelling.
That's what I did at teen Vogue. That's what I've
(40:33):
done my whole career. That's what I do at Team
at Proderick Greenway at the talk like this in all
the people that I've ever worked with, including Serena Williams,
who by the way, was the very first cover star
that I had the opportunity to work with when I
was an intern at Ebony. That was the very first.
It's like a full circle moment. So truly, truly, building
(40:53):
Birth Fund has felt like a full circle moment in
every way possible, Serena Williams being one of our unders
and being able to call on her with this because
I know that we have this shared experience of navigating
the maternal healthcare system and not having great experiences. You know,
her story was part of what opened my eyes to
(41:14):
this issue area that honestly wasn't really on my radar
in a very real way, and I don't think it's
on many people's radars in a very real way until
your life is on the line, and by then it's
often too late. And so I saw this opportunity from
a storytelling perspective to reach people and meet people where
they're at before it's too late, and to raise not
(41:36):
just awareness, but to rally resources and galvanize a community
around solutions, because that, to me, is where the real
opportunity is for storytelling. Because at this point, for the
most part, it is on our radar. We do know
that there's you know, discrepancies around maternal outcomes. We know
that we've all heard sad stories of a mother dying,
(41:58):
but we think of this as as like kind of
one offs or things that can't happen to us. But
once we realize the magnitude of the issue. If for
those who do realize the magnitude of the issue, they're
often overwhelmed by how depressing it is and by how
complex the issue is. And so to me, the opportunity
was to really find the solution that will fuel people
(42:22):
to get activated around this, and a solution that can
meet people where they're at, a solution that leans into
positive birth stories and outcomes and can leverage people's hope
and joy around the idea of giving birth on their
own terms. And that all is wrapped up in Midwiffree
(42:42):
And my personal experience is really what led me to
this work. I again would never have thought if you
asked me five years ago, if I would have thought
I would be starting a maternal health focused venture, let
alone nonprofit. I would have been like, not my ministry,
Like not the thing I know a lot about. But
turns out that by the lived experience of becoming a
(43:03):
mother in this country radicalizes you. It opens your eyes
and your mind and your heart in a way that
nothing else can. And experiencing firsthand just how broken this
medical system is, particularly you know, the maternal health system
as it relates to how women are treated, I felt
(43:24):
convicted to do something about it. Like I couldn't just
and it couldn't just stop at advocacy, It couldn't just
stop at just me telling my story about how discovering
MIDWI free change my trajectory that I was on, not
just as a pregnant woman, but as like a woman
in this world. It truly acquainted me with my power
(43:45):
in a way nothing else has, you know, Having this
home birth with these midwives truly, truly, truly was life changing.
And so I felt convicted and compelled to make sure
that any families who felt that their lives were on
the line, who needed support and did not know where
to turn, or who did not have the financial resources
(44:05):
to access mid with free care, that money could not
be the thing standing in the way of them getting
this kind of care that is so revolutionary, that is
so sacred, that is so life saving in many cases.
And so that's kind of that's the why and how
that I got to starting Birth Fund. And we're now
a year old, which is crazy in a way because
(44:27):
it feels like I've been doing this forever. In one
breath and then another breath, it's like I feel like
I was just pregnant two seconds ago and going through
the really dizzying maze of trying to find good care
like so many people are. But we've accomplished so much,
and yet there's so much more to do, and it
just feels like again one of those things that fulfills
(44:48):
the life the life's work category. Like if I look
at my portfolio, of all the things that I do
for a living, birth Fund takes up probably the most
time for me right now, makes the least I literally
do not pay myself, but it fulfills the biggest part
of my soul's purpose.
Emily Tisch Sussman (45:08):
What is something that it could be something we've discussed already,
or could be something totally different. What is something that
at the time you saw it's a real low point,
and now you see it as having really launched you
into the success you are today. I would say the
low point that launched me was feeling extremely lost in college,
(45:29):
right before I was getting ready to graduate and like
launch myself into the world. I felt like that was
the rubber meets the road moment, where like You've had
all this time to kind of supposedly figure out what
you want to do and who you're going to be,
and then all of a sudden, it's like this is
a very real deadline, Like no, but for real, now,
who are you going to be?
Elaine Welteroth (45:49):
What are you going to do? That was the most
daunting crossroads of my life, but I am just so
grateful for it because it forced me to like really
dig in and figure out what is the thing that
lights me up for real and how can I build
a life around that? Because I do not want to
(46:10):
look up ten years down the line, twenty years online
and realize that I've created a career where I spend
most of my time and it's not making me happy,
or I feel like this isn't the thing that is
the highest expression of like who I am and what
I was put here to do. I really knew I
wanted to do something that made me feel a sense
(46:31):
of purpose or that felt connected to a sense of purpose.
But figuring that out when you're like twenty years old
is incredibly daunting and it's not something that you figure
out overnight. But at least the idea that I was
wrestling with that from an early age forced me to,
like I don't know, to prune a little bit and
(46:53):
like to be like, Okay, no, I'm not going to
do the like auto insurance job or no, I'm not
going to take like that EA position, that like financial
firm in San Francisco, because that's not the path I
want to be on. Like I know how I want
to feel, and I want that feeling of purpose and
and like that just like that light, that light that
(47:13):
you feel, that like expansion that you feel when you're
doing something you really really that you really love, Like
I want that feeling. So I kind of made that
decision from that dark place of being like I have
no fucking idea what I'm going to do with my life.
I have way too many interests, way too few options,
Like what do I. Do with this?
And I really I don't know. I think that the
(47:35):
chasing that feeling has navigated has helped me navigate like
every single honestly career move I've made since.
Emily Tisch Sussman (47:43):
I think I know the answer to this, But do
you think you'll pivot again? I don't know if I
see life as pivots anymore. I think that my big
pivot is behind me in terms of taking the first
really big bet on myself leaving the structure of a
job where one company is paying me, you know, like
(48:03):
that one salary job. I think leaving that behind was
the biggest pivot professionally that I've made, and then everything
from there on is like an adventure.
Elaine Welteroth (48:13):
Baby. We just out here on an adventure, and I'm
going to continue expanding. I'm going to continue letting like
curiosity guide me because it's really it hasn't led me astray,
you know, And I feel like divine timing has always
surprised me when I've allowed my curiosity to lead me.
(48:34):
So I'm always going to continue to grow. I'm never
going to put myself in a box. I will always
probably do all the things that I do now, you know,
from television to writing books, which I'm on deadline on
right now, and I'm extremely stressed out about and oh
my god, it's not moving fast enough. But and then
birth Fund is my baby. It's like it's kind of like,
will you have more babies? Yes? Will I always be me? Yeah?
(49:00):
Will I continue growing? Yes.
Emily Tisch Sussman (49:01):
I love that answer. Thank you so much, Elaine, It's
been absolutely incredible having me on.
Elaine Welteroth (49:06):
Oh thank you. I feel like I met my fellow alien.
I know, like I feel like we're like we're like
from the same planet, Emily, the planet of Pivoters were
from the same place.
Emily Tisch Sussman (49:20):
Elaine lives on the West Coast with her husband and
two beautiful children. She is continuing to build birth Fund
so it is accessible to any mother or family who
wants it. You can find out more and get involved
at the birthfund dot com and be sure to follow
Elane on Instagram at Elaine welder Off for all her
latest and very cool updates. Talk to you next week.
(49:43):
Thanks for listening to this episode of She Pivots. I
hope you enjoyed it, and if you did, leave us
a rating and tell your friends about us. To learn
more about our guests, follow us on Instagram at she
Pivots the podcast, or sign up for our newsletter, where
you can get exclusive behind the scenes content on our
website at she pivots thepodcast dot com special thanks to
(50:09):
the she pivots team. Executive producer Emily eda Velosik, Associate
producer and social media connoisseur Hannah Cousins, Research director Christine Dickinson,
Events and Logistics coordinator Madeline Snovak, and audio editor and
mixer Nina pollock I endorse she pivots
Welcome back to She Pivots. I'm Elaine Welterroth.
Emily Tisch Sussman (00:13):
Welcome back to She Pivots, the podcast where we talk
with women who dare to pivot out of one career
and into something new and explore how their personal lives
impacts these decisions. I'm your host, Emily Tish Sussman. Today,
in honor of Mother's Day, we're celebrating the strength, resilience
(00:35):
and power of mothers by highlighting someone who was working
to create a safer, more supportive future for them. Elaine Welterroth.
Elaine and I have been orbiting around each other right
when I launched she Pivots. Elaine's ind an instagram live
all about pivoting and it was sent to me about
one hundred times. And finally we got to connect just
(00:56):
the other week when Gotham FC played in LA and
we immediately bonded. I invited her to the game with us.
It was her first night out since having her second baby,
so despite my jet lag and her sleepless nights, we
just clicked. Like Elaine says later in the episode, it
felt like we had found each other's pivot Aliens. Elaine
(01:18):
is best known from little places like oh, you know, Project. Runway,
Teen Vogue and more.
Always a trail blazer, Elaine made history as the youngest
ever editor in chief of teen Vogue. She left an
indelible mark on the magazine and the industry as a
whole when she included coverage of politics and social justice
issues and encouraged readers to become specifically engaged. At the
(01:41):
height of her career in the magazine world, Elaine made
a bold pivot. She left the print media world behind,
stepping into a new chapter as a best selling author
of her book More Than Enough and a judge on
the iconic show Project Runway. But her most personal and
powerful pivot came after her own pregnancy and birth experience.
(02:03):
Throughout those nine months, Elaine saw firsthand the deep inequities
facing mothers in America. After going from doctor to doctor
and being ignored and dismissed, Elaine found Midwhiffery. She finally
felt heard and soon had a beautiful birth under the
care of for Jula. Then she looked at the statistics.
Research suggests that midwiffery care can avert more than eighty
(02:25):
percent of maternal and infant debts, and with the maternal
health crisis, that didn't seem to look like it was
getting any better. Elaine decided to launch birth Fund, a
groundbreaking initiative that aims to expand access to safe and
affirming birth care, including midwiffery, by connecting families with funders
and resources. Elaine's pivot is what this show is all about.
(02:47):
Those deeply personal experiences that stir you into action and
the professional experiences that came before that help you find
success within your pivot. Without Teen Vogue or Project Runway,
she might not have met her investors, Serena Williams and
Carly Klass. Everything builds on itself, and motherhood is no exception.
(03:10):
Happy Mother's Day to all the amazing moms out there.
I hope you enjoyed this special episode with my fellow
pivot alien.
Elaine Welteroth (03:20):
My name is Elaine Welterroth and I do a lot
of things. Among them, I'm the founder of birth Fund,
and I am a journalist, author, and television host.
Emily Tisch Sussman (03:31):
Okay, we're going to back up, go all the way back,
So tell us about little Elaine, Like, what did you
think you were going to be when you grew up?
What was her family like? Like, what was it like
around when you were growing up.
Elaine Welteroth (03:41):
Yeah, So we grew up in the Bay Area, and
my mom and dad are little opposites. But they've been
together gosh, forty years now, forty two years now actually,
and actually together longer. They've been married for forty two years.
And my dad was a carpenter and my mom was
(04:04):
a desk jockey of sorts. And they worked at the
same company, lockeed Martin, And I say desk jockey of
sorts because because she had one of those jobs like
you don't really know what the heck your mom does
as a kid, you know, and I still don't fully understand.
But they worked at lockeed Martin Missiles and Space Company.
So they met there. My dad's mom was my mom's
(04:27):
like manager, and she introduced them and it was just
like a really sweet love story. But yeah, my dad
is this like white rocker, hippie kind of guy, and
my mom is this like black church going, southern raised
kind of more traditional lady. And they could not be
more opposites, but they produced a household that was incredibly eclectic. Musically,
(04:53):
they bolt what they have in common is music. My
mom's a gospel singer. My dad, as I said, it's
like an acoustic rock guitar player, and my brother is
a punk rocker and so and I was like this
kind of like goodie two shoes, like junior and senior
class president. I ran track, I was a cheerleader, I
like did all the things. So yeah, we were just
(05:15):
a bunch of like we were a study of contrast
for sure. But my household was very liberal and very
open minded, open hearted. My parents were super encouraging of
me and my brother in terms of just exploring our
passions in life, and they didn't put us in any boxes.
You know, we were really we felt really free to
(05:36):
be and explore who we were and what made us happy.
And in hindsight, like that was probably one of the
greatest blessings of my childhood.
Emily Tisch Sussman (05:44):
But in a world where value is placed on more
traditional metrics of success, like a degree from a top university,
Elaine felt like she wasn't prepared in that way.
Elaine Welteroth (05:55):
It's like I wanted to go to Stanford, that was
like my dreams, well, but I had no freaking idea
how to get there, no freaking idea how to pay
for it, and so then I ended up not even applying,
for example, or like SATs I didn't even know people
studied for SATs. I didn't know how you study for SATs.
I didn't know when they were happening. I didn't know
how to approach it. I don't know there were tutors.
I didn't know other people were like thinking about this,
(06:18):
and like at my school, we just didn't really there
there was no push or prioritization around things like this.
So even though I pushed myself a lot, there were
things I didn't know that made me feel like unprepared
in certain ways. Like I remember going into my SATs
and having like a full on panic attack, like full
in hindsight, I realized that's probably what it was, and
(06:42):
I just, you know, like I just didn't feel prepared.
I just remember like having this moment of hearing everybody's
pencils racing, and I couldn't even think. I couldn't like
process the question. I was just like so overwhelmed and intimidated,
and I cried my eyes out when I got home
because I was just I just knew that I bombed and.
(07:05):
I did bomb it.
And then that test score was something that kind of
hit my confidence. And I never even applied to my
dream schools. But listen, life comes full circle. Luckily things
worked out as they should, and I was able to
do all the things and so much more without having
that Stanford College degree.
Emily Tisch Sussman (07:25):
My thesis in starting this show was thinking about the
fact that all of these and I felt like I
kept hearing this conversation of new moms, and I kept
hearing this refrain of oh, well I did do this,
but that's all a waste now. My career was this,
but that's all aways now, And I was like, but
that can't be true, Like, couldn't this have built us
(07:47):
towards what we're in now or what we're ready for
the next chapter. So you know, even as you're talking
through all of these pieces like you wish you were
better prepared for it, it sounds like it did really
build within you a lot of confidence and you had
to navigate situations on your own, which I imagine then
gave you those skills for later on.
Elaine Welteroth (08:08):
You know what, thank you for that reframe, because it's
incredibly true and healthy. And I let me put it
this way. In order to navigate your path in life
and in career with a sense of purpose, you have
to nurture that muscle. It's not something you just come
to this world. I mean, even if you do come
to this world knowing exactly who you are and what
(08:30):
you want to be, the world will strip that away
from you. Like little by little, you will get put
in boxes, told what you're able to do, what you're
not supposed to do, what's expected of you, what's not
expected of you, And like you know, there's this quote,
there's this statistic that I used when I was writing
my book more Than Enough, and it really it's something
(08:50):
that I come back to a lot. It's this idea
that girls' confidence peaks at age nine in this country.
And so I think about myself as a little girl,
and I was super confident, like I wanted to do everything.
I felt like I could do anything, could be good
at everything, and had tons of friends and was in
(09:10):
all the things. And then I do remember this like
chipping away. And it wasn't because of my family, It
wasn't because of how I was parented. It was the
world that I was exposed to, and it was the
boyfriends that I was dealing with and the impact they
had on my self esteem. And so I do think
thankfully like I got the opportunity to strengthen that muscle
(09:35):
of figuring out how to get back to that confident
girl and how to make decisions that felt right in
my spirit and that felt like purposeful, And you know,
so I feel so blessed that I had the opportunity
to figure out some things on my own early on
and make some mistakes early on that helped me redirect
(09:55):
myself again and again back to what feels most true,
most right, most in alignment with my calling.
Emily Tisch Sussman (10:06):
Without a Stanford degree, but connected to her desires, she
graduated from college with the BA in Communications and Journalism.
She got to work and applied to her dream publications
multiple times. As her former boss at Ebony, Harriet Cole, accounts.
Archival (10:24):
Because she is relentless, and I met her because there
was an on slot of communications from her when she
had just finished college and wanted to intern with me
when I was working to revitalize Ebony magazine. He said
it was super professional and focused the entire time, so
(10:45):
I knew I had a winner. I only had to
get her at three thousand miles across the country and
we were talking about the internship, so I had to
be really created.
Emily Tisch Sussman (10:55):
Was it always going to be fashion for you or
was it journalism and you found fashion, which was the
one you were driving towards.
Elaine Welteroth (11:02):
Such a great question, and the answer is absolutely, it
was about storytelling for me. It was not about necessarily
fashion or beauty. I fell into fashion, beauty and actually
a beauty and style opportunity, And of course I was
always interested in that. Like, don't get me wrong, I've
always had like a really good eye. I've always I've
(11:25):
always loved style. I definitely have a proclivity towards that.
But really the driving force was I wanted to sell stories.
I wanted to I wanted to write cover stories. That's
what when I was a little girl, I would go
straight to the cover stories section of every magazine. And
I also growing up, I read Essence magazine, which had
this column from the editor in chief called in the
(11:47):
Spirit from Susan Taylor, and she was like my editorial icon.
I read everything that she wrote. It was always very
inspirational and spiritual and grounded, but like contextual in this
really like elevated styleized lifestyle way. And so that's what
framed my kind of perspective on journalism, the kind of
(12:09):
journalism I wanted to do. But I certainly fell into
the fashion and beauty space and learned so much. I
will say most people don't know. It's kind of insider baseball,
but being a beauty director is the most common fast
track to becoming an editor in chief. So like, don't
sleep on beauty editors because people think that you're just
sitting there like playing with products at your desk. But
(12:31):
in beauty ads are what power and pay for magazines
like you know, I mean especially women's magazines. They got
big budgets, and so you are the one who is
more front facing than most editors. You're going out on
pitch call, sales calls with the sales team, You're learning
how to you know, back in the day, I was
(12:51):
doing what we now call branded content. So I learned
so much about the business of storytelling, specifically in publishing,
from being a beauty editor. And I'm so grateful that
I came up through that path because it's so much
more than lip glass and mascaret. Let me tell you so,
in my perfect world, I would have had the career
(13:14):
trajectory that I had, truly like, which was to touch
it all, to touch it all, and to come in
through the door of beauty and fashion because again, There's
so many things that you learn along the way. There's
so many people you get to connect to. Like that
role puts you out in the world way more than
other editorial jobs, you know, Like I had to fight
as a lowly intern at Ebony to get like front
(13:37):
row seats and access to backstage at all of these shows,
and even that's a skill set, you know. And then
working the rooms at those places and making sure that
the magazine that you represent is properly represented, like there's There's,
and then the call ins for the I mean, I
literally did twenty five people's jobs before I turned twenty five.
(13:58):
So it equipped me in so many ways, not just
for success in the magazine world, but for success truly
in anything. I really think any a magazine editor can
run almost anything, Like you truly have to be a
jack of all trades to be an editor in chief.
Emily Tisch Sussman (14:18):
So you ended up as the editor young of teen Vogue.
How did that happen? What changed when you got there?
Going given you had done a number of these jobs,
but probably not all the jobs once you became the
editor in chief teen Vogue?
Elaine Welteroth (14:32):
Oh yeah, absolutely so, I mean, gosh, there's so much,
so much ground to cover, but to try to put
it succinctly, I went from Ebony to Glamour to teen
Vogue as Beauty director, beauty and Health director to editor
in chief. And that last jump at teen Vogue took
(14:54):
about I think five or five years or so. I
was actually the beauty direct or longer than I was
the editor in chief. I learned the ropes and did
that job, or I learned the ropes at teen Vogue
through doing that job. First, I came in after Eva Chen,
and a lot of the change that people credit me
(15:17):
with from my time at teen Vogue as editor in
chief really happened before, Like the groundwork was laid before
I got appointed. So the first hire that I made
was or one of my first hires was Philip Occarty
who became the digital director, Marie Souter who was the
creative director, all along with someone I was constantly working
(15:38):
really close with, and we all were promoted together. And
so we had and because of Amy Astley, who was
the incredible editor in chief at teen Vogue, founding editor
in chief, she was so incredible as a leader and
that she gave these young people positions of authority and
trusted us. She guided us, but it was it was
(16:00):
similar to my parents. Actually it was it was like
I've had different types of leadership above me, and you know,
I've had another you know leader who or other leaders
who have been more kind of micromanagy or like on
top of you and have a very clear picture of
exactly what needs to happen, and they tell you and
you're more executing their direction. But in the case of
(16:21):
teen Vogue, we had a lot of space to figure
out what we wanted to say and we were super
supported in saying that, and that wasn't something I was
necessarily expecting or that I think she, or teen Vogue
or Vogue in general, has gotten a lot of credit for.
I think you think you think of that environment as
like devil worst Prada. There's like there must be someone
(16:43):
telling you no and you know, telling what you can
and can't do. But it was actually the opposite. It
felt very creatively empowering. I remember when I got there,
I was like, what she would just give me like
an okay, Amy Asley okay. That was like her little
sign off on pieces and it would just be like
positive feedback and aaoka, and I was just like, what
(17:06):
so we can just really do like we can tell
the stories you want to tell, and so that was
that had had a lot to do with how and
why we were able to find this new direction for
teen Vogue before the moment came where, you know, it
was like our watershed moment where everybody suddenly realized that
teen Vogue was doing different kinds of work than that
(17:29):
we had been previously. We used to be kind of
more fashion and beauty focused for really privileged young kids,
you know, young people, and we saw the world changing
and we wanted to change with it. We had to
change with it. It was kind of like change, you
evolve or die. At that point, it was around twenty fifteen,
twenty fourteen, fifteen, sixteen seventeen, like around there, it's like
(17:51):
the whole world changed so fast. At fourteen years old,
teen Vogue is growing.
Archival (17:57):
Up watch a junior fashion bible, geared towards brand conscious teams.
Teen Vogue is evolving seriously on issues ranging from immigration,
the Muslim band, and climate change, even taking on President Trump.
Teen Vogue is forming and to be this kind of
powerhouse incubator that takes young activists and puts them in
(18:17):
front of other young people and says you can do
this too.
Elaine Welteroth (18:21):
So it was it was white space. It was a
missed opportunity, and we wanted to seize the moment to
deepen our connection with our audience and have different kinds
of conversations and expand the intersection a bit to include
different types of young people. And so we just pushed
the envelope and we were supported in doing so. And
(18:42):
then by the time I became editor in chief, it
was like a rocket ship because we had been working
diligently for years to kind of change the kinds of
storytellers that were coming in and the types of stories
we were telling, and then we had kind of carte
blanche to take off. We did. It took off like
a rocket, and suddenly all eyes were on Teen Vogue
(19:04):
and we kind of really met the moment in a
way that was really palpable, and I think shifted the
trajectory of not just Teen Vogues legacy, but I think
a number of other magazines and how they saw their responsibility,
if you will, in terms of having to step up
into some of these conversations and issue areas that maybe
(19:29):
previously they would have seen as like outside of their purview,
you know, the sort of felt like this church's not
all magazines. I'm not just and I'm not trying to
take credit or say that teen Vogue is the only
one that was doing this. Certainly there's so many magazines,
even including Vogue, including you know, Marie Claire Elle. All
of these women's magazines have never gotten enough credit for
(19:49):
the ways that they have covered news, politics and cultural
events like all along. But it was never really spotlighted,
and it wasn't totally encouraged. It always felt like, oh,
nice for these pretty ladies with good style to be
weighing in, but this isn't This isn't your place, you
know what I mean. There was always that sense that
(20:09):
it wasn't our place, and we were just like following
that youthful spirit of the audience that we talked to,
and like they were like, this is our place, We're
claiming our space, this is it, you know, And so
we kind of followed their lead to just own that
this is where we belong to. We can take up
space here to young people's perspectives matter too.
Emily Tisch Sussman (20:32):
And the world was changing at the same time, to
your point that the audience was growing and the entire
industry of magazines was moving more online, less in print.
Did you feel that coming? Did you know it was
coming to come as a surprise to you?
Like? How did you manage that?
Elaine Welteroth (20:50):
Oh? For sure? I mean the writing was on the
wall from the day I entered the magazine industry, which
is why I always had plans beyond magazines. And the
reason and thankfully the reason for that is I had
a mentor in my first boss, who modeled a what
a multifaceted career could look like that leverages the foundation
(21:12):
of an editorial background, but takes it further. And so
I always joke that like, my first boss was a
multi hyphen it before multi hyphen eating was a thing,
And so because of her influence on me, I was like, oh, okay,
this is just the first step. Magazines are just the
first part of my career, the first chapter and for
(21:33):
the first act rather because there's a lot of chapters
of that one part of my career, but it was
the first act, and I always anticipated subsequent acts like
I never thought this was going to be where I
live and die. I was like there, I was constantly
checking in with myself like is this the time to run?
Is this the time to go? Not run? But I was.
(21:54):
I was sort of putting my finger to the wind
and being like, Okay, is this the moment to take
my leap of faith or do I have more here
to learn and more here to do? And so I
was always in dialogue with myself about that, and then,
particularly as it relates to you know, a teen Vogue's audience,
they were already online by the time I got there
(22:15):
in twenty twelve, so and when I started, there was
only one person working on digital and they were working
on a silo. They were working in a silo on
an island of their own. And then slowly but surely,
that team and the focus kind of shifted, that balance shifted,
and so when I became the editor in chief, I
was responsible for all of it, and I was looking
(22:38):
at teen Vogue as a brand and the opportunities that
we had to grow, and you know, launched teen Vogue Summit,
which was an experiential piece of the business that didn't
exist before. But I saw this really incredible community that
we were galvanizing. I was like, we need to be
bringing them together to connect with each other and to
you know, have these in person touch points. So there
were opportunities to grow but it was very clear to
(23:00):
me that the writing was on the wall around print,
you know, and there being an expiration date, and so yeah,
I mean it was something that we were frankly having
to plan for and it kind of dovetailed really perfectly
and a like kind of in a divine, divine time
for me, because I truly felt like by the time
(23:21):
we knew that the print side was going to be sunset,
I was like, there is so much more for me
to do outside of the magazine business. There is something
else calling me, and I it's go time. Like I
just felt like, you know, when you reach that point
of diminishing returns and you know that you have delivered
against every dream that you had. And then some like
(23:44):
I am a huge proponent of walking at the top
of your mountaintop, like like walking away when you're at
the mountaintop, were in terms of what other people's perception
is of you, and when you know that there is
another mountaintop for you to climb towards, like get busy,
you know, don't stay, don't stay longer than you need
to at that first mountaintop. So yeah, I can say
(24:06):
that I felt a sense of completion during my time
at teen Vogue, like I felt triumphant. I felt like
we did that, We did that, and then you go.
And it's the same thing I felt honestly about New
York in general in twenty twenty, Like when I got
after I got married on my stoop during the pandemic,
I was like, we did that, Like we did that,
(24:28):
and that that is New York, Like there is no
higher mountaintop for me here other than this moment of graduation.
Like this, it felt like a graduation for me, and
I was like, Okay, it's time to set sales for
new pastures. And that's how I ended up moving it
to La kind of it seemed impulsively to most people
because I hadn't. It's not something I had talked about.
(24:48):
But I had always known my New York act would
come to an end and then there would be an
La Act. I just didn't know when it would happen,
And similar with Teen Vogue and magazines in general, I
knew that that act would come to it, and I
just didn't have a sense of the timeline. I didn't
realize how how quickly all of these things would happen,
and so I had to move with the momentum, and
(25:09):
I've never I never once looked back. And it's not
to say it wasn't a hard decision to make. It was.
It was actually excruciating. In some moments, it was really hard.
It was it was hard to pull the trigger. But
the decision in my spirit had already been made that
it was time for me to explore the things that
had been on my heart and like tugging me.
Emily Tisch Sussman (25:30):
When teen Vogue moved to strictly digital, Elaine was famously
quoted saying that wasn't the vision that I had for
the future of teen Vogue. So was her exit tied
to Conde Nast decision? After the break? We get the
real answer was the decision to leave teen Vogue tied
(25:58):
to the decision to sunset the print. But you felt
like you had closed the chapter or now with someone
else's vision. To take forward.
Elaine Welteroth (26:05):
I would say yes and no in the sense that
I was feeling the poll before that decision had been made,
and I felt that sense of completion, like approaching. And
I remember I even sat down and did a little
bucket list assignment when I felt like a year before
(26:26):
I actually left, and I wrote some things on that
list that I really felt called to do before I left,
and I was like, Okay, when I leave, I want
to I want to be able to look at this list.
And no, I did all the things that I that
were in my heart to do. And so it's interesting
because in that year that I got those things off
(26:48):
the ground, including like the teen Bok Summit, as I mentioned,
and also getting Hillary Clinton to guest edit our final issue,
Like I didn't know that was going to be our
final issue, but that's a final issue. If I ever
did one, you know, that's a mic drop right there.
If I was going to manufacture my my drop moment,
it would have looked exactly like the one that I had,
(27:08):
but it wasn't necessarily that orchestrated, if you will. I
think at some point it became clear, okay, like where
what I'm feeling is lining up with what feels like
it makes the most sense as well from a business perspective,
like I felt like expansion energy. I felt like I
am only growing and expanding and wanting and capable of
(27:30):
doing even more. I don't think it makes sense to
stay somewhere that is shrinking. It just it just didn't
make sense. I felt like my territory was getting smaller
as I was expanding, and I just needed my territory
to continue expanding, and the only way for me to
do that was to expand it myself and build my
(27:50):
own path forward.
Emily Tisch Sussman (27:52):
Yeah, So I think getting into the weeds here a
little bit as helpful because I think a lot of
people struggle with the idea of when to leave, when
to move, especially if you're doing okay, Like if you're
not actually forced out, why leave? Like if it's still
going okay? So, how did you it sounds I think
feel like you've talked to this a little bit already,
like how did you know it was the right time?
(28:13):
But how much did you have planned? Oubt in specifics?
And also next game project Runway, which is like a
dream job for so many But was that the thing
that paid the bills? Was that the thing that brought
you joy? Was it both? Was it neither?
Elaine Welteroth (28:33):
Okay, there's so much here. I love the way your
mind works. I love the questions you asked. All right,
let me let me try to go back and answer
them in order, because you you're absolutely right that there's
so many people who are in their own lives and
careers thinking how do I know it's time to move.
Do I leave? Do I stay? So the piece of
advice that I got that was incredibly helpful, if not instrumental,
(28:58):
to some of these pivot pivot moments of mine in
my careers and in relationships, by the way, is to
identify the point of diminishing returns, which means essentially, are
you giving more than you can ever get back from this?
Or is there more for you to give and for
(29:19):
you to have an ROI on right like, is there
more for you to learn? Is there more for you
to do? And so many times when I thought I
was ready to quit, I would ask myself that question
and I would realize that there was actually more for
me to do or there was more for me to learn.
And so I think that is a helpful question to
ask to help distinguish between am I burnt out? Or
(29:44):
am I actually ready to move on to my next thing?
And if the answer is you already move on to
your next thing, I would say you don't do it
without your game plan. And I had a solid game
plan and I had checks up through April of the
following year. I was gung ho about my financial goals.
(30:06):
I wanted to make sure that I could make more
than what I was making at Conde Nas before I
left Conde Nas. And I one of the things that
I learned towards the end of my tenure there was
that like all these speaking engagements I was doing for
free for teen Vogue, people are getting paid for, paid
very well for. And so a paid speaking opportunity came
to me in kind of like my final chapter at
(30:29):
teen Vogue. And normally, like we're trained to just hand
those over to our supervisor to get approval on them,
and of course you cannot accept any payment. But in
this case, I was like, well, I don't think I'm
going to be here when this speaking engagement has happened,
and I'm really I'm giving you like the real tea
right now, Emily, Yeah, ANSI tea. And so I was like,
you know, I'm not going to ask for permission because
(30:51):
I'm not going to be here, and why would I
not take this check What?
And so I started to realize like, once I said
yes to that one, then I realized all these other
opportunities that I was not getting offered a paycheck for
I would and could be getting a paycheck for if
I was a free agent, and so I was quickly
doing the math on that and realizing there was a
lot of opportunity. I also had a book deal. I
(31:14):
had a book that had been writing itself inside of me,
and my first goal was to sell a book deal
with a great advance for teen Vogue. And before I
ever even said the word that I wanted to write
a book, but at every one of the meetings, they
were like, great, great, great, thank you for this pitch
for teen vogues book. What about your book? And it
was such an uncomfortable thing because I was like what what? What? Like?
(31:35):
I mean, I was such a I was so programmed.
I was like and I was like a boy. I
was like wait what me? What? No? I was on
I was so associated with the brand that I was
representing that it felt almost like insane. It felt almost
disloyal or just wrong fundamentally for me to explore opportunities
(31:55):
for myself. But it was a mindset that I had
to break. I had to shift that. And after I
got a successful book deal for teen Vogue, they told
me just know. When I was leaving, they said to me,
just know, we have allocated a budget for your book.
We want your book, and I was like, I mean,
this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to be
(32:16):
in that position, and I know I have a book
in me that I've I always thought I would write
multiple books because of my mentor again going back to
the model that she set for me, the blueprint that
she handed me, that was what she did. I just
didn't think I would have those kinds of opportunities that soon.
If anything, I had to get over my imposter syndrome
like I deserve, like I deserve to write a book
(32:37):
at this or I'm you know, I'm worth what you're
willing to give me to write this book. But that
was my main thing. Emily, Like, it's so funny to
hear you talk about project or a way like that,
because when I tell you, that was so not even
on my radar, and it wasn't even something that was
a hell yes for me at first, because I was like, wait,
I just I had my own reservations about it at first,
(32:59):
and I had to get over some of the reservations
that I had, and especially also because for me, this
was my book writing era, like I left to write
a book and to build into the I knew I
wanted to work in television though I always knew that
I wanted to work in television, but I was imagining
writing as a writer in a writer's room or creating
(33:21):
my own shows. Like I didn't see myself as talent necessarily,
So when this came, I was like, it felt like
too unserious, if that makes any sense.
Emily Tisch Sussman (33:31):
Yeah, I was gonna ask, what are you What were
your reservations?
Elaine Welteroth (33:33):
Yeah, I felt like maybe it was it would it
wouldn't I wouldn't be taken seriously in some of the
other things that I wanted to do if I was
a judge on Project Runway. But at the same time,
thank god, the counsel around me was like, girl, you
are tripping. This is an incredible opportunity. Do this, do
this show. And I never, to be honest, I never
watched Project Runway. So I also felt a little bit
(33:55):
like a imposter syndrome. I had some imposter syndrome about it.
But you know what, Emily, I had never read teen
Vogue before I became an editor at teen Vogue, so
I had it there too. I think, I honestly think
imposter syndrome is a sign that you are on the
right track of growth and you are being pulled into
uncomfortable territory. It does not mean you are not qualified.
(34:17):
It doesn't mean that you don't belong there. It doesn't
mean that you shouldn't do it. It just means that you're
being called to territory that is new and now is
the time to explore it. And so I think there
was some of those some of that was coming up
for me, but ultimately it was the best thing because
it was in every way like the perfect timing and
also just an incredible experience, like I got to do
(34:39):
this with my friends. Carly called me and convinced me
to do it. She's like, we have to do this together. Brandon.
It was like me, Carly and Brandon, and then also
of course Christian, We're just like, we're going to do
this together. We have no idea if this is going
to like work or not. And it turned out to
be my fun job. You ever seen anything like this
(35:00):
Project Runway history face and first this season on Project
run you took us to another galaxy. This was my
favorite love of the Runway hands. I fell in love
with everything about Project Runway, including the fans, Like, can
(35:21):
I just tell you the Project Runway fans are the
best fans in the world, which is why I smiled
and so big when you said you love Project Run.
I was like, you're my people. You're my people, and
so it was an incredible experience and one that served
my larger goals. I guess in the sense that the
timing really worked out well because it aired as soon
as my like a couple months before my book came out,
(35:41):
So it was like this marketing platform for my first book,
and then on top of it, there were a number
of other things I was working on. I was doing
tons of speaking opportunities, doing a lot of brand partnerships,
so it was really again it was like I am
building this portfolio business for myself that really does mimic
exactly what I was doing at a magazine for many years,
(36:03):
because if you think about the role of a magazine editor,
especially a front facing one, you're doing TV, you're doing
sales calls, you're doing branded content, you're managing a creative team,
You're doing all of the things that I was doing
for every magazine I worked for, especially at the as
an editor in chief. At the end, are all the
things I do for myself now.
Emily Tisch Sussman (36:25):
When we come back Elaine talks about how everything she
has done on her career has built her to the
moment she is in now, despite some major pivots. Elaine's
(36:48):
biggest pivot found her when she became pregnant for the
first time at thirty five, and she was confronted with
the horrible reality that is the maternal health crisis.
Archival (36:57):
The Committee will come to order without objection. The Chair
is authorized to declare a recess of the Committee at
any time. I now recognize myself for an opening statement.
Our nation is facing a maternal health crisis across the globe.
Our maternal mortality rate ranks the absolute worst among similar
(37:19):
developed nations and fifty fifth overall.
Elaine Welteroth (37:23):
No matter your socioeconomic position, you can't as a black woman,
escape the risk of becoming a statistic And I never
really understood how real and true that is until it
was my turn. One thing to read the statistics, it's
another to recognize how close you are to becoming worry.
Archival (37:42):
It's a maternal morbidity rate in the United States right
now that is disproportionately affecting black women.
The US maternal Morbidity rate is the highest out of
all industrialized nations.
Emily Tisch Sussman (37:52):
Soon a lane turned to midwiffery and finally felt heard
after hearing truly unbelievable things from doctor these.
Elaine Welteroth (38:00):
Doctors that I went to, I went in and I
asked my questions with a smile. Eventually the doctor stands
up with their clipboard and they start to walk out
in the middle of our conversation. The doctor just said,
you've exceeded our two to three question max per visit.
I've allowed you to ask additional questions. I've given you
some grace.
Emily Tisch Sussman (38:22):
After giving birth to her first baby, Elaine was changed
and knew she could do something about it. So she
started birth Fund as a way to connect women to
midwifery care at little to no cost, providing an end
to end solution to fix the maternal health crisis.
Elaine Welteroth (38:43):
You know what, I would say that most people think
of my big pivot as the one from teen Vogue
to everything that came after, and that was definitely my
first big pivot, And I think about this stage of
my career now is actually not at all like a pivot.
(39:05):
It feels like a culmination moment in my career. It
feels like literally every single thing I've ever done, every
opportunity that I've had every person that I've met, every
skill that I've acquired, has all been for this, like
it comes together in the creation and the birth of
(39:28):
Birth Fund, because I find that it's a very untraditional
path to a nonprofit and even that I don't even
really think of it as a nonprofit. I think of
it as a venture with many legs and will it
will have pivots over time and it will look different
over time. But it's starting as a nonprofit and I'm
(39:49):
not a nonprofit person. It's in a health space. I'm
not a public health person at all. Even if you
asked me what a midwife was like four years ago,
I would not have had an intelligent answer. So I
am a newcomer in every way to this space. But
it's because of all the things that I have done
in my life that uniquely equip me to meet this
(40:12):
moment with such charge and which set with such vision
and conviction. Because it's not dissimilar from what I did
at teen Vogue or any magazine job I ever had.
Right like it in a lot of ways is rooted
in storytelling, and you know, cause related or impact storytelling.
That's what I did at teen Vogue. That's what I've
(40:33):
done my whole career. That's what I do at Team
at Proderick Greenway at the talk like this in all
the people that I've ever worked with, including Serena Williams,
who by the way, was the very first cover star
that I had the opportunity to work with when I
was an intern at Ebony. That was the very first.
It's like a full circle moment. So truly, truly, building
(40:53):
Birth Fund has felt like a full circle moment in
every way possible, Serena Williams being one of our unders
and being able to call on her with this because
I know that we have this shared experience of navigating
the maternal healthcare system and not having great experiences. You know,
her story was part of what opened my eyes to
(41:14):
this issue area that honestly wasn't really on my radar
in a very real way, and I don't think it's
on many people's radars in a very real way until
your life is on the line, and by then it's
often too late. And so I saw this opportunity from
a storytelling perspective to reach people and meet people where
they're at before it's too late, and to raise not
(41:36):
just awareness, but to rally resources and galvanize a community
around solutions, because that, to me, is where the real
opportunity is for storytelling. Because at this point, for the
most part, it is on our radar. We do know
that there's you know, discrepancies around maternal outcomes. We know
that we've all heard sad stories of a mother dying,
(41:58):
but we think of this as as like kind of
one offs or things that can't happen to us. But
once we realize the magnitude of the issue. If for
those who do realize the magnitude of the issue, they're
often overwhelmed by how depressing it is and by how
complex the issue is. And so to me, the opportunity
was to really find the solution that will fuel people
(42:22):
to get activated around this, and a solution that can
meet people where they're at, a solution that leans into
positive birth stories and outcomes and can leverage people's hope
and joy around the idea of giving birth on their
own terms. And that all is wrapped up in Midwiffree
(42:42):
And my personal experience is really what led me to
this work. I again would never have thought if you
asked me five years ago, if I would have thought
I would be starting a maternal health focused venture, let
alone nonprofit. I would have been like, not my ministry,
Like not the thing I know a lot about. But
turns out that by the lived experience of becoming a
(43:03):
mother in this country radicalizes you. It opens your eyes
and your mind and your heart in a way that
nothing else can. And experiencing firsthand just how broken this
medical system is, particularly you know, the maternal health system
as it relates to how women are treated, I felt
(43:24):
convicted to do something about it. Like I couldn't just
and it couldn't just stop at advocacy, It couldn't just
stop at just me telling my story about how discovering
MIDWI free change my trajectory that I was on, not
just as a pregnant woman, but as like a woman
in this world. It truly acquainted me with my power
(43:45):
in a way nothing else has, you know, Having this
home birth with these midwives truly, truly, truly was life changing.
And so I felt convicted and compelled to make sure
that any families who felt that their lives were on
the line, who needed support and did not know where
to turn, or who did not have the financial resources
(44:05):
to access mid with free care, that money could not
be the thing standing in the way of them getting
this kind of care that is so revolutionary, that is
so sacred, that is so life saving in many cases.
And so that's kind of that's the why and how
that I got to starting Birth Fund. And we're now
a year old, which is crazy in a way because
(44:27):
it feels like I've been doing this forever. In one
breath and then another breath, it's like I feel like
I was just pregnant two seconds ago and going through
the really dizzying maze of trying to find good care
like so many people are. But we've accomplished so much,
and yet there's so much more to do, and it
just feels like again one of those things that fulfills
(44:48):
the life the life's work category. Like if I look
at my portfolio, of all the things that I do
for a living, birth Fund takes up probably the most
time for me right now, makes the least I literally
do not pay myself, but it fulfills the biggest part
of my soul's purpose.
Emily Tisch Sussman (45:08):
What is something that it could be something we've discussed already,
or could be something totally different. What is something that
at the time you saw it's a real low point,
and now you see it as having really launched you
into the success you are today. I would say the
low point that launched me was feeling extremely lost in college,
(45:29):
right before I was getting ready to graduate and like
launch myself into the world. I felt like that was
the rubber meets the road moment, where like You've had
all this time to kind of supposedly figure out what
you want to do and who you're going to be,
and then all of a sudden, it's like this is
a very real deadline, Like no, but for real, now,
who are you going to be?
Elaine Welteroth (45:49):
What are you going to do? That was the most
daunting crossroads of my life, but I am just so
grateful for it because it forced me to like really
dig in and figure out what is the thing that
lights me up for real and how can I build
a life around that? Because I do not want to
(46:10):
look up ten years down the line, twenty years online
and realize that I've created a career where I spend
most of my time and it's not making me happy,
or I feel like this isn't the thing that is
the highest expression of like who I am and what
I was put here to do. I really knew I
wanted to do something that made me feel a sense
(46:31):
of purpose or that felt connected to a sense of purpose.
But figuring that out when you're like twenty years old
is incredibly daunting and it's not something that you figure
out overnight. But at least the idea that I was
wrestling with that from an early age forced me to,
like I don't know, to prune a little bit and
(46:53):
like to be like, Okay, no, I'm not going to
do the like auto insurance job or no, I'm not
going to take like that EA position, that like financial
firm in San Francisco, because that's not the path I
want to be on. Like I know how I want
to feel, and I want that feeling of purpose and
and like that just like that light, that light that
(47:13):
you feel, that like expansion that you feel when you're
doing something you really really that you really love, Like
I want that feeling. So I kind of made that
decision from that dark place of being like I have
no fucking idea what I'm going to do with my life.
I have way too many interests, way too few options,
Like what do I. Do with this?
And I really I don't know. I think that the
(47:35):
chasing that feeling has navigated has helped me navigate like
every single honestly career move I've made since.
Emily Tisch Sussman (47:43):
I think I know the answer to this, But do
you think you'll pivot again? I don't know if I
see life as pivots anymore. I think that my big
pivot is behind me in terms of taking the first
really big bet on myself leaving the structure of a
job where one company is paying me, you know, like
(48:03):
that one salary job. I think leaving that behind was
the biggest pivot professionally that I've made, and then everything
from there on is like an adventure.
Elaine Welteroth (48:13):
Baby. We just out here on an adventure, and I'm
going to continue expanding. I'm going to continue letting like
curiosity guide me because it's really it hasn't led me astray,
you know, And I feel like divine timing has always
surprised me when I've allowed my curiosity to lead me.
(48:34):
So I'm always going to continue to grow. I'm never
going to put myself in a box. I will always
probably do all the things that I do now, you know,
from television to writing books, which I'm on deadline on
right now, and I'm extremely stressed out about and oh
my god, it's not moving fast enough. But and then
birth Fund is my baby. It's like it's kind of like,
will you have more babies? Yes? Will I always be me? Yeah?
(49:00):
Will I continue growing? Yes.
Emily Tisch Sussman (49:01):
I love that answer. Thank you so much, Elaine, It's
been absolutely incredible having me on.
Elaine Welteroth (49:06):
Oh thank you. I feel like I met my fellow alien.
I know, like I feel like we're like we're like
from the same planet, Emily, the planet of Pivoters were
from the same place.
Emily Tisch Sussman (49:20):
Elaine lives on the West Coast with her husband and
two beautiful children. She is continuing to build birth Fund
so it is accessible to any mother or family who
wants it. You can find out more and get involved
at the birthfund dot com and be sure to follow
Elane on Instagram at Elaine welder Off for all her
latest and very cool updates. Talk to you next week.
(49:43):
Thanks for listening to this episode of She Pivots. I
hope you enjoyed it, and if you did, leave us
a rating and tell your friends about us. To learn
more about our guests, follow us on Instagram at she
Pivots the podcast, or sign up for our newsletter, where
you can get exclusive behind the scenes content on our
website at she pivots thepodcast dot com special thanks to
(50:09):
the she pivots team. Executive producer Emily eda Velosik, Associate
producer and social media connoisseur Hannah Cousins, Research director Christine Dickinson,
Events and Logistics coordinator Madeline Snovak, and audio editor and
mixer Nina pollock I endorse she pivots
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