Emily McDowell is an illustrator, writer, speaker, teacher and entrepreneur who's work has been featured by The New York Times, Good Morning America, NBC Nightly News, BBC News, and NPR's All Things Considered, among many others. Her story is one of inspiration in the success she found after she decided to follow her dreams after a major health crisis. After spending a decade working in advertising she was diagnosed with cancer and went through pain that so many of us and our loved ones know of. These feelings of pain and loss are at the very core of her writing and other work. During her health crisis she experienced being at the receiving end of "what not to say" and talks about this as being an integral part in helping inspire her to create a range of empathy greeting cards that would resonate with people, in a non-cheesy way.
She describes her experience in the advertising industry as important in helping her create things that people want rather than making people want things they don't need. Finding almost immediate success with her greeting cards and being featured across international press she expanded her range to feature work that focuses on empowering the individual.
Her greeting card story began in 2012 and she began her business Emily McDowell Studio's (it has since been renamed to Emily McDowell & Friends). Emily’s first book, There Is No Good Card For This: What To Say and Do When Life Gets Scary, Awful, and Unfair To People You Love, co-authored with Dr. Kelsey Crowe, was released in January 2017. In 2018, Emily McDowell Studio merged with Knock Knock and People, Places and Things (formerly Sisters of Los Angeles) to create The Who’s There Group: one company housing three distinct brands. Her greeting cards are currently stocked in over 2000 stores world wide. She remains co-founder and director of Emily McDowell & Friends and continues to create empathy products that really connect people.
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