Jen Lawrence – September 25th & 27th
Jen Lawrence has been a professional writer for over a decade. She’s written about faith, storytelling, midlife renewal, style, divorce, parenting, critical thinking, and career change for numerous publications, including Today’s Parent and The Toronto Star. She was a pioneering mommy blogger and an editor at Literary Mama. She is the author of Engage the Fox: A Business Fable about Thinking Critically and Motivating Your Team. She also writes at 1010 Park Place and The Huffington Post, and at her personal blog, dwellonthesethings.com
Prior to having children and becoming a writer, Jen worked in investment banking and management consulting, and was the Executive Director of a children’s museum. She has an MBA in Finance and an undergraduate degree in Classics and English Literature. She is currently at work on her first novel, as well as a memoir about finding faith in midlife.
The real story
Once upon time, there was a Toronto mom named Jen Lawrence who left her fancy career to have children, and promptly lost her mind.
As the author of the pioneering mommy blogs, T. O. Mama and MUBAR, Jen wrote about infertility, post-partum depression, and why-it’s-so-hard-to-get-a-coffee-already when wielding a double stroller. Someone made a documentary that captured her experience. Sadly, Jen was played by an actress (and no, not Jennifer Lawrence), thus thwarting her life-long desire to appear on reality TV.
After disappearing from the blogosphere during some faith-rattling years that included divorce and dating abuse, she returned to writing, publishing a business book and starting a new blog titled Dwell on These Things, in a nod to Philippians 4:8.
She has returned to her faith and is enjoying a beautiful second chapter. She’s married to her suburban neighbourhood’s resident “handsome widower” and is now the matriarch of an action-packed family of seven, plus an assortment of pets. She has experienced “beauty for ashes” first-hand and believes wholeheartedly that, through God’s love, everything is redeemed.
Jen believes in the redemptive power of story, and knows how sharing our struggles can bring us closer to one another and help us heal. She is currently at work on a novel and a memoir, and coaches clients who want to tell their own stories. She is thrilled to join the team at See Hear Love.