We are Childfree

“How do you pave the way for your childfree future?” We help out a childfree woman who’s facing down 40 and wondering what it means for her future that she didn’t have kids? There’s tons of great advice from the childfree community here, about finding role models who inspire you, defining your own purpose and living life on your own terms! If you have a problem you'd like the community's help with...

“We both wanted kids but I’ve changed my mind - how do we talk about this?” The childfree community shares their advice and experiences with someone who’s found herself on the other side of the “kids fence” as her husband. Find out what men think about fatherhood, how to help your partner understand your side of things, and how to work to create a life that’s right for the both of you 🫶 If you ha...

“How do you steer the conversation away from kids?” Listen in as the childfree community rallies around someone whose friends have kids going off to college, and can’t talk about anything else! Find out how to support the mothers in your life and foster reciprocal relationships, even if it sometimes means boring them to tears about your dog 🐾 If you have a problem you'd like the community's help...

“My new coworkers keep asking me if I have kids. What should I do?” That’s the burning question we answer with the help of the childfree community, for someone who’s started a new job where the watercooler conversations are… not cool. If you have a problem you'd like the community's help with, email hello@wearechildfree.com with "Ask WAC" as the subject line. Questions from We are Childfree member...

Natasha is a British-Asian woman who was born with a bicornate uterus, who found out at 21 that carrying a child to term would be very difficult and dangerous. This helped Natasha make a careful, considered choice about being childfree, but it was the final disappointment for her traditional Hindu parents who she’s now cut out of her life. This was an eye-opening conversation about growing up in E...

We are Childfree community member Lisa Jansen is really living up to her idea of a “life done differently”. Based in New Zealand, Lisa left her cosy corporate life behind to live in a van for a summer - which turned into 5 years on the road! She’s just published a memoir called Life Done Differently , in which she shares the ups, downs and all the life-changing experiences of full-time van life. W...

How do you decide whether to have kids or not? That's the question from a self-proclaimed fencesitter that we put to the We are Childfree community for this episode of Ask WAC! How can you even imagine life as a parent? How do you separate external pressures from your own inner feelings? Listen to find out! To get the full episode,  join We are Childfree today 🤗 And if you have a question or prob...

Do childfree people ever regret their decision? That's the burning question we put to the We are Childfree community for the very first episode of Ask WAC! How many childfree people experience regret? Where does that regret come from? What does it feel like? Listen to find out! Sources for this episode: The incredible We are Childfree community. Join us! MSU study confirms: 1 in 5 adults don’t wan...

Author Sari Botton calls her hysterectomy the best thing that ever happened to her, a true blessing. An older Gen Xer, she never felt entitled to choose not to be a mother, and at 40, found herself in a fertility clinic getting a diagnosis that gave her “permission” to live a happily childfree life. Sari has such a unique perspective, and it was amazing getting to talk about embracing a choice tha...

The first man we’ve ever had on the pod! We’ve had a lot of requests to hear from couples about how they navigate the childfree choice together, so we reached out to Xander, husband and business partner of sex therapist Vanessa Marin. The couple opened up on their Pillow Talks podcast about their decision not to have children, in what proved to be their most popular episode ever! Xander told us ho...

Here's your first sip of Childfree Tea, the brand new bonus podcast from We are Childfree! Join founders Zoë and James for an emotional update on the ups and downs of running a global childfree community. Get the latest on our beautiful fur baby Olive, our wonderful coverage in The Guardian , meeting childfree icon Cindy Gallop and our plans to hit the road. To get more Childfree Tea, exclusive co...

Cindy Gallop is the older childfree role model we all need! She calls herself the “Michael Bay of business” because she likes to blow s**t up - most famously as the founder of the revolutionary social sex platform MakeLoveNotPorn. Cindy never wanted children, adores being single, dates younger men casually and recreationally for sex, and doesn’t give a damn what anyone else thinks! She’s become an...

Enjoy some classic We are Childfree! My conversation with clarity coach Keltie Maguire is one of our all-time most popular episodes - we still hear from people who say this conversation has helped them either work out whether they want kids or not, or to accept their ambivalence and move forward with their lives. If you’d like more help navigating your ambivalence, check out the online workshop we...

Like a lot of artists, portrait photographer Laura Zalenga is a dreamer. She imagines a future when generations live together, so the older people she met during her "Beauty of Age" project feel useful, and younger folks can benefit from their experience and wisdom. In this utopia, childfree people and parents support each other, and everyone has access to the education and choices that allow them...

It can be hard trying to decide if you want children or not, and it can be doubly difficult when there are two people involved in the decision. That’s why I wanted to speak to today’s guest, Melanie Hunter, who went with her husband to couple’s therapy, specifically to unpack the question: should they have kids? It was fascinating to hear about how they made an intentional choice to be childfree,...

Eva zu Beck knows more than most about finding the courage to put yourself out there as a strong, childfree woman. She’s a solo adventure traveller with millions of YouTube subscribers who - like the rest of us -struggles with being real, instead of trying to be perfect. In this super candid chat we shared about trying not to minimise ourselves, about setting boundaries and taking the freedom to f...

I invited Emma Hollen onto the pod because of a super-entertaining Twitter thread about her struggle to get a tubal ligation, and her eventual success, at age 30. As a pansexual, non-binary person, Emma doesn't feel that she fits the narrow definition of "woman" that society would force her into. And, as a science journalist, she taught me a lot about the diversity of the natural world, our place...

Jerra Latrice Mitchell is such an inspiration! She knew she was a teenager that she didn’t want kids, but later when she was diagnosed with fibroids and learned she couldn’t get pregnant, that brought up some big emotions that she needed to work through. Recognising that black women face different expectations around motherhood, and different experiences of infertility, Jerra created a space for o...

Anna Brooke was born with a health issue which means that pregnancy and childbirth could be very dangerous for both herself and the child. Over time, she came to accept that she wouldn’t be able to have biological kids of her own. So instead of becoming a mother to the teen daughter she used to write to in her diary, Anna now works as a high school teacher. She’s showing her students that there ar...

For Jenny Castano, being childfree is so much more than a lifestyle choice - it’s meant having the freedom to create the life she’d always dreamed about. When she moved from Colombia to Queens, New York, as a teenager, Jenny already knew that she wanted to learn English, go to college, find a profession and travel the world. Check, check, check - she’s done all that! Even though she’s too modest t...

We are Childfree is back for season 2 with one of my dream guests! Caitlin Durante is an LA-based comedian and co-host of the Bechdel Cast, which takes a look at movies through an intersectional feminist lens. I spoke to Caitlin a year after her tubal ligation, in the run up to what she’s calling “raw dog summer part 2”! We shared our experiences getting permanent birth control, the hoops we had t...

Keltie Maguire is a clarity coach who's originally from Canada and now lives in Germany. It's only in the last six months, as she nears her 40th birthday, that Keltie's reached a 95% confidence in her choice to embrace a life without children. That last 5% is super important, because Keltie isn't someone to fully close the door on any possibility, preferring to live the most dynamic life possible....

Shelley is a clinical psychologist and second-wave feminist who's been fighting for our rights since the 70s. She was an early beneficiary of Roe vs Wade, which legalised abortion in the US, and chose to be sterilised at 21. Now that she's 65, it was a pleasure to look back with her over an action-packed life, to see how far we've come in the struggle for gender equality and bodily autonomy... and...

In Donna Freitas' new novel, The Nine Lives of Rose Napolitano , the eponymous heroine faces a dilemma. Before she got married, her husband promised her he didn't want children - but now he's changed his mind. Could happily childfree Rose will herself to become a mother in order to save her relationship, and if so, what might her life look like? Author Freitas found herself in this very scenario i...

Doreen Caven was raised in a Catholic household in Nigeria, and she was a baby feminist even before she knew what the F-word meant. At an early age, she saw the role she was expected to fill, as a wife, a mother, submissive to men, and she wasn’t having any of it. Doreen and her younger sister, also childfree, now live in Los Angeles and run The Girls Like Me, a wonderful platform which amplifies...