Woman of the Week

Christine Koh

Get inspired by this self taught artist and entrepreneur!

-April Daniels Hussar

Working for BettyConfidential.com has many perks, but one of the greatest is getting to meet - whether in person or "virtually" - so many truly incredible and inspiring women. And Christine Koh, the bright and lovely founder of BostonMamas.com and Posh Peacock, is exactly the kind of superwoman disguised as an everywoman that we can all relate to and be inspired by. This mother of one has managed to turn her insecurities into her assets, and to forge her own path to a life of creativity and beauty. Read on to find inspiration from a truly awesome Betty...

I'm really interested in what drove you to leave your previously chosen path (you have a Ph.D. with expertise in music as it relates to pedagogy, cognition, and the brain), feeling that you'd rather "perish than publish." What was the impetus for making this major life change after 10+ years in academia? And how did you decide to launch not only Bostonmamas.com but Posh Peacock as well?

In short, the jump came down to finally following my instincts. For so long my path seemed linear and clear - I was enormously inspired by my college professors, who helped me discover that I could bridge my interests in psychology and music (I was a competitive violinist and taught privately and in group settings). But after undergrad, I wrestled with the idea of change at various junctures of my career. I was bothered by many things: the bad pay, the piles of dry journal articles to read, the resistance I felt to writing journal articles that I knew a panel of peer reviewers were looking to tear apart. But I kept going because I really believed in my research ideas. Then when I got to my postdoctoral fellowship everything took a turn for the worse: the content was technical and boring compared to the research I completed during my Ph.D., the work environment was socially isolating, and my relationship with my advisor and his family came to a surreal, manic head towards the end of my fellowship. I also became a mom during my postdoc, which of course changed the way I viewed everything. All signs were pointing me to the exit.

I started developing BostonMamas.com toward the end of my postdoc. As a new parent, my research skills translated naturally to my parenting. Whatever the topic - nutrition, products, development - I researched it exhaustively. Friends often asked me for advice on various topics and I realized that I should just synthesize all of my thoughts in one place. And Boston was lacking a stylish independent parenting portal with a wide variety of topic coverage. So I went about creating it, with particular attention to making the site fresh and stylish; appealing to modern parents like myself.

Launching Posh Peacock was the formalization of creative energy that had fueled many personal projects, as well as those for friends and family; it seemed natural to make myself official in my new identity as a producer of creative things. In retrospect, the development of two brand new sites in such a short time span (about three months) seems vaguely insane, but at the time, it made perfect sense.

And circling back to the instinct piece... I think I've always been a gut type person, but it wasn't until I became a mom where I really trusted that instinct and ran with it. So I decided not to hit the override switch when it was time to take the next logical step in my academic career. Many people were amazed that I took such a brave and fast leap after investing so many years in academia. But the jump was easy - I was drowning emotionally and creatively in my postdoc - and it clearly was the right instinctual move. And once I did it, all of my friends were like, "Well it's about time!"

What fears did you have and how did you conquer them? read more...