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Ann Handley

Writer. Speaker. Marketer.

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Family History

Follow The Fear: Do Things That Scare You

Dead End

I used to think that being afraid of everything was a weakness. Then I learned how to “follow the fear,” and use fear to my advantage. This is an annotated version of a talk I gave on the Bold Talks stage at Hubspot‘s INBOUND event. I published the essay that became the basis for this […]

Filed Under: Annarchy, Business, Children, Family History, Social Media

Missing

My mother died 25 years ago yesterday, when she was 62. I realized this fact sometime last night, and it astounded me. First I was astounded because I remembered how, at the time, I thought that she was appropriately old enough when she died after a lengthy illness. (Whatever that means—another thing I now realize […]

Filed Under: Annarchy, Family, Family History, Parenting Tagged With: mother's day, Parenting

Scavenged

We set off on foot, the six of us, under an azure sky as big as the ocean. The breeze off the water smelled of salt and September, and the dune grasses bent toward each other, whispering the news that fall was coming. It was a picture-perfect, precious August day, the kind of day that […]

Filed Under: Family History, Pop Culture, Travel Tagged With: Maine, Ocean Park, scavenge, scavenger hunt, social networks, summer, summer games

Awkward Family Photos

As I sometimes reveal here, there is something universal about the awkwardness of family. About a week ago, two childhood friends launched a site to document as much. The results — in the vein of LOLCats and Stuff White People Like — are hilarious: The Choker: “This is what happens when your male role model […]

Filed Under: Family History, Humor, Pop Culture Tagged With: awkward family photos, family, Family History, Humor, photos

‘What Happened to Your Nose?’

Ouch!

It’s usually children and foreigners who ask: those who have no sense of propriety or privacy, or those who consider Westerners too uptight about all the wrong things, and, paradoxically, not uptight enough about others. The waiter at the Indian restaurant sympathetically gestures toward his own, toast-colored nose and inquires in heavily accented English, “Oooh… […]

Filed Under: Family History, Politics & Society, Social Media, Teenagers Tagged With: basal cell carcinoma, Brownie Girl Scouts, cancer, daughters, personal history, privacy

Wii Are Family

Wii tennis pro

In college, I had a friend named Jane. She was the oldest daughter in a family of tennis players, and they all looked like her: tall and willowy, but strong as thoroughbreds, with defined muscles in their long arms and legs; permanently sunburned noses; and an effortless way of moving that was almost heartbreaking to […]

Filed Under: Children, Family History, Parenting, Pop Culture, Teenagers Tagged With: children's games, digital life, family culture, personal history, sports, Technology, tennis, uncoordinated, Wii

Evergreen Christmas

Christmas ornaments

1970 It’s four days before Christmas, and my father finally retrieves from beneath the cellar stairs the huge Sears box that houses our Christmas tree. The tree is heavy, its metal trunk solid and plumed with thick branches trimmed with rough-cut green cellophane that simulates pine needles. It’s the only Christmas tree I’ve ever known, […]

Filed Under: Children, Family History Tagged With: 1970s, Christmas, Christmas ornaments, Christmas trees, daughters, Family History, kids, mothers, personal history, traditions

Punked

fresh milk

When the flight attendant advises that passengers place the oxygen mask over their own faces before assisting those traveling with them, I always interpret this imperative more broadly—that I should take care of my own needs first, whether or not I’m strapped into an airplane seat, 30,000 feet in the air. Day to day, this […]

Filed Under: Annarchy, Children, Family History, Humor, Parenting, Teenagers Tagged With: family, kids, milk, Parenting, personal history, practical jokes, punked, Teenagers

Birthday Boy

Thirteen years ago today, we threw a first birthday party for our blond, apple-cheeked boy. Three months later to the day, he would be dead, from a virulent and rare form of strep. One day he was sitting in my lap with a book, clapping his hands when we came to his favorite page. And […]

Filed Under: Annarchy, Children, Family History, Parenting, Writing Tagged With: kids, mothers, Parenting, personal history, Writing

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