How to manage what emails you receive from me, via Substack.
Go to https://jodyday.substack.com/account and toggle the slider on/off to receive JUST my Gateway Elderwomen essays, or to also include/exclude my monthly Gateway Women newsletter (which features events and news of interest to childless women of all ages, but it may just be one email too many in your inbox)
Quick links (scroll down for letter from Jody)
NOW: Journalist Stephanie H. Murray (a mother) is writing an article for The Atlantic magazine on how those of us without children experience other people’s children. In her survey, she asks questions such as, “Assuming it is something you’d like to do, have you ever encountered obstacles or resistance to getting more involved in the lives and/or care of your friends’ children?” and “Do you ever feel excluded from the lives of your friends’ children?” This is important stuff. She’s interviewed me before, and I’ve found her very fair and not at all sensationalist. Fill in survey here.
JULY’s theme in the CC online community is ‘Naming What Was Lost.’ When we think of childlessness grief, we often think of the child we never had. But the loss ripples further, into identity, relationships, the future we imagined. Join us as we explore how these aspects show up, and how to offer space to name and honour them. Join us in the Childless Collective membership community with an instant 7-day free trial.
JULY: Special Offer £10 ticket price to my readers for ‘Empty’: a play by childless writer Robert Nurden running at the Drayton Arms, London from 7-11th July. Use the code EMPTY10 at the checkout. https://www.thedraytonarmstheatre.co.uk/empty
AUGUST: Cultivate & Flourish, a 12-week coaching program with Katy Seppi and Tanya Hubbard, is back. It’s for childless women who wish to nurture the sparks of possibility in their lives as they tentatively begin to emerge from the cocoon of grief. Next cohort begins 12 August, 7-8.30pm US Eastern time. Click here for more info.
SEPTEMBER: topics for this year’s World Childless Week, taking place online September 14-20th can be seen here. The deadline for submissions to the WCW website is 16th August, and can be anonymous or credited as you wish. It’s time to start thinking about how YOU will take part in the 10th Anniversary of World Childless Week! All details here. (And do subscribe to Stephanie’s excellent WCW newsletter to stay in the loop). WCW is on Substack World Childless Week.
SEPTEMBER: StoryhouseChildless This weekend-long festival for non-parents in Chester (UK) takes place September 25-27th. I’ll be part of a panel talking about creating ‘communities of care’ (such as my Alterkin project) on Saturday afternoon, and will be around for the rest of the weekend to enjoy it and hang out with you all. Browse the programme here. This is the only festival for non-parents IN THE WORLD, and who knows how much longer Storyhouse will be able to fund it, so please don’t put off coming ‘until next year’! Weekend pass only GBP £40 - click here.
OCTOBER: Feel - Share - Emerge is a supportive online circle in English for childless women in North America, led by my dear friend, therapist, licensed Reignite Weekend facilitator, and World Childless Week Ambassador, Catherine-Emmanuelle Delisle. Each group is only 6 participants and starts on October 7th. Full info here.
OCTOBER: Still a couple of places left on our October Reignite Weekend in London, UK, with Yvonne John and Sarah Lawrence - our last Reignite Weekend for 2026. Info for ALL Reignite Weekends here.
ONGOING: Four new practitioners have been added to the Gateway Women listings for non-parent practitioners this month: Katherine Arrowsmith (UK, Manchester) is a Specialist Autism Mentor that I had the pleasure to meet at Storyhouse a couple of years ago; Sebastiana Black (UK, Norwich/Suffolk) is an IFS (Internal Family Systems) therapist; Jo Gibson (UK, Nottingham) is a UCKP-accredited integrative psychotherapist with a particular interest in working with ambivalence, and Marianne van der Rest (USA, California) is a Feminine Embodiment Coach. Each of them works online too, and it’s worth reading their profiles on the GW website, where they often share more about their non-parent journey than they might feel comfortable sharing on their own website. There are now more than 85 global practitioners listed on my website here.
Letter from Jody, July 2026
Dearest One,
If you’re in the Northern Hemisphere and are planning a summer holiday or are already on one, you can’t have missed the many ‘summer reading’ articles in the press or online. But how many of them, particularly those aimed at women, will be SFC? (Safe for childless/free readers!) Not many, I reckon… So I wanted to share with you a truly fantastic book I’ve just read, and reviewed, called No Fair Maidens: A Wild Journey with the Lost Goddesses of Britain, by Kim Willis. It’s a mythological memoir, but if that sounds heavy, don’t let it put you off—it’s the most relatable and uplifting memoir/travel book I’ve read from a single, midlife, non-mother for a very long time. You can read my full review here and, for my international readers, Blackwell’s in Oxford offers free international delivery (and no, I’m not on commission!)
You might also like to know that in the CC Online Community, we have a Nomo Book Club, where each month we read a novel together that doesn’t centre on motherhood or children, and provide reviews, discussion prompts, possible content warnings and a live Zoom at the end of each month. I started that subgroup 7 years ago, and it’s wonderful to see that it going strong thanks to members Lori and Jemma. Thank you! Access with a CC membership here. And over on Instagram, the Nomo Book Club page (same name; different group!) reviews both fiction and non-fiction for childless/free people.
As some of you may now, my focus over the last five or so years has been on ‘Elderhood without Motherhood’ and, for the last couple of years, in getting a ‘community of care’ off the ground called ALTERKIN in my rural Irish location. In the last week, our modest little project was featured in The Atlantic magazine (written by the same Stephanie H. Murray whose survey I shared at the top of this newsletter), and I’ve also published an essay here on Substack about the first year of our Alterkin Circle for those who are interested in starting one of their own. What can I say - next week will be my birthday, and the people I’m going out with for a celebratory lunch are my ‘kinnies’—so it’s going well :)
I have some good personal news in that, after a nail-biting year of scary tests, I have been given the all clear from a rare progressive brain disease, and a few other nasties too. Now ‘all’ I have is Long Covid and, over the last month (and even before my neurological consult), I was definitely starting to feel a bit better. I’m not out of the woods yet – my energy is still all over the place, and environmental stimulation (noise, people, smells, etc), knock me for six, but my concentration, writing and speaking abilities are returning. I’m still working at a much reduced level, and I’m still off social media – and quite frankly, apart from Substack Notes, I think it’s unlikely I’ll ever return, except for the one week of World Childless Week each September – I really don’t miss it at all!
Until next month,
I love this portrait of me by the very talented Zoë Noble of We are Childfree - she'll be on stage at Storyhouse this year - don't miss out on meeting her - she's amazing!
This newsletter takes a day (at least) each month to write and produce. If you'd like to support my work, you can leave me a tip at BuyMeACoffee, and I'll probably do exactly that with it, no doubt, whilst also reading a book you've helped me buy :)
Thank you for all the work that goes into this newsletter Jody. I really appreciate the information available through your hard work. Also, thank you for your comments on Alterkin, on last night's Zoom. I am especially grateful for 'this is just ONE way to do it, not THE way' as a reminder to myself to do things MY way. I need to push myself out of my comfort zone more, but often set my sights on many leaps ahead instead of just one step at a time. I may not be doing much at the moment, but I am taking it all in. H xx
Am also reading No Fair Maidens by Kim Williams - isn't it brilliant!