I’m a journalist and I own a lifestyle magazine called About Time which I’ve run for about 10 years. Alongside that I write and have published a book on female entrepreneurship, which came out last January. Unattached is my second book.

Just before the pandemic I came out of my five year relationship and it was the first time I’ve been single in my adult life for as long as I can remember. I guess I’d been jumping between relationships from the age of 16 and not spending an awful lot of time on my own. I realised that there was a bit of fear there, so it was something I just wanted to explore.

I think it’s something that a lot of people find difficult – owning that single space and seeing it as something that can be celebrated. We often view it as something that needs to be fixed and there can be stigma around being single as you get older. There’s often a sense of panic. I wanted to create something that was empowering and this was just the kind of book I needed to read at the time.

One of the big takeaways was that being single is a journey. I don’t think you’ll always arrive at a destination where you think ‘I’m suddenly good at this and being on my own.’ It’s not always easy and there needs to be a bit more vulnerability in the process. One of the things for me has been very transformative in my relationship with being single is having more of a community of friends and other women that are single – I found so much joy, comfort and solace in those relationships.

Find a single group and invest in friends around you in the same boat that you can connect with. With friendships, you go through different seasons. I found that all of a sudden a lot of my friends were getting married and having babies but I felt in a totally different stage. That can be quite isolating and I think we need to continue to make new friends as we get older. The other thing I’d say is if you are newly single, it’s always going to be hard at first. Yet it’s important to sit with that for a while and consider what’s happening. If you don’t like spending time alone, or feel you need the reassurance of someone else, this could be the time to consider why. Reflective practices, yoga and journaling were all helpful for me too.

Definitely. Even this Valentine’s Day for example, there was more conversation around single positivity than I’d ever seen before. I think as our careers become more nonlinear and we don’t have the same 9-5 routines as the generations before us, there’s a similar shift happening in our personal lives. We’re more understanding that there’s different stories and different timelines for people, as well as a celebration of individual desires. People seem to have more open, nuanced conversations about the concept of time and whether they want children too.

About Time is a lifestyle magazine and working for myself was kind of the only option. When I left university, there weren’t very many jobs open, so I started doing my own thing. It started as a portfolio for content really and I thought after a few months I would get another job but years later, I’m still running it. I built my team around me and I’d say I’m an accidental entrepreneur. When I was at school business and entrepreneurship were not things that were talked about very much, especially amongst women, and it was a surprise to myself that I ended up as an entrepreneur. I’ve seen a shift in recent years though of people celebrating female entrepreneurs, which is why I wanted to write my first book.

The podcast is a celebration of different female founders and their stories, whilst also challenging men to be more vulnerable. It came about as I noticed whilst at events and women were often asking questions about confidence and how to build resilience. There were a lot of the same anxieties about starting businesses and changing careers, so the podcast speakers address how to build confidence and take advice from other female founders who’ve been there. The festival is also a celebration of female entrepreneurship and empowerment. A lot of people like that face to face contact and it allows more access to mentorship opportunities – as from my experience, finding a mentor can actually be very difficult.

Luckily, I’ve found a lot of doors opened because I am a female founder – perhaps that’s due to timing. I’ve had some challenges whilst doing events where I felt like I was the only woman on panels but I think more so, age was a challenge for me. I started out so young with About Time and sometimes it was hard to be taken seriously. For the first few years when I’d go to things I felt patronised in certain environments but there were times when people wanted to support me and help me out because of my age too.

Confidence in a concept is vital as a starting point and believing what you’re trying to do is 100% viable. Do your market research and have a clear idea of what the business is about, as well as how it’s going to make money. Your support network is also so important. There were lots of times that I wanted to give up g but having other female founders to turn to was really important for me. Try to put yourself in the room and find people to connect with who are on a similar journey. I have friends that I work with a lot who are also self-employed. I think that’s been very, really helpful.

Conversations on Love: Lovers, Strangers, Parents, Friends, Endings, Beginnings by Natasha Lunn and I’ve been reading a lot of Taylor Jenkins lately.

I’ve got a new season of the podcast out in April and I’m working on a book about doing your own PR, which will be out in November.