2020 was a life-changing year for almost everyone. Ours started with an (explosive!) bang — we all got norovirus! Luckily I was still on maternity leave for a couple of weeks, so we had some time to recover and plan out our new schedule. Little did I know it wouldn’t last very long.
I returned to my job as Editor-in-Chief at WonderHowTo at the end of January after three months (12 weeks) of maternity leave. I had enough time to get settled back into work, work through my overflowing inbox, and completely revamp our editorial task management workflow by finding, creating, and training the team on an Asana solution. Two months later, the company’s owners implemented some drastic pandemic-related budget cuts to ensure the company’s survival through the recession.
After an extended maternity leave and adjusting to our new COVID lives, I started looking for new opportunities.
I focused first on finding full-time work. Eventually, I realized none of these opportunities seemed the right fit. None let me use my many strengths and talents, and none would give me the freedom and flexibility to raise my daughter and live the life I want.
When applying for a Head of Content position at Levels Health, a metabolic health startup focused on bringing continuous glucose monitoring to the average person, I wrote a researched blog post. At that point, my brain was a pandemic-scarred puddle of breastmilk that never had an original thought. But digging through the research again and talking with researchers was exciting and energizing.
Even though it was scary deciding to start a freelance business in a pandemic with a one-year-old, I knew this was the best opportunity to pursue freelance work I was going to get. The other option would be getting sucked into another full-time job that would rob me of my leisure and passion, burn me out, and leave me dead-eyed in front of a blaring TV at night.
I’ve felt the most productive, happiest, and most fulfilled in my career when I’m producing content and talking to researchers regularly. My goal over the next few years is to build a freelance career in science communication and use my editorial, management, and strategy skills to work with companies and publications to improve their ability to communicate science and health information to the public.
So, I dipped my toes in the writing waters again.
I attended:
- ONA 2020
- NASW Science Writers 2020
2020 Freelance Business
By November, I had decided to dive headfirst into the freelance writing world, applying to every health and science anchor gig I could find.
- I wrote some articles for LiveStrong through HealthDay’s Custom Content arm.
- I started writing evergreen content for Verywell Health as my first anchor client.
- I got my first actual commission—for a special project with the Science Philanthropy Alliance, I was assigned an article on the role of genome sequencing in fighting COVID, focused on how the basic science of sequencing developed and the role it has played in fighting the pandemic.
In December, I attended Christie Aschwanden’s Level Up Bootcamp to get my business plan together and network with others in the same boat. It helped me plan my 2021, and I feel confident I’m ready to do this freelance thing.
I also:
- I had my first real freelance journalism pitch accepted!
- I got my first marketing contract for Q1 2021.
In 2020, I earned $3,520.00 from my freelance business.
