SPINSTER. CAT-LADY. CHILDLESS

IT’S TIME for a NEW STORY

A 9-week guided group journey to release the stories we inherited — and author one that’s actually true.

9 weeks

Virtual

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Small Group

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MAYBE YOU’VE FELT THIS

It isn’t one conversation, it’s hundreds of ordinary things that accumulate over the years —

Weekends that once came together spontaneously now revolve around birthday parties and nap times.

Conversations with your groups of friends often veer into things only the other moms can relate to.

You’ve watched your friendship, slowly over time, reorganize themselves around the rhythms of parenting

Without realizing it, you’ve gotten remarkably skilled at adapting..

You listen more than you speak when conversations go somewhere you can’t follow.

You’re the flexible friend. The generous “Auntie”

You selfishlessly work around all your mom-friends schedules.

And at work, you find yourself volunteering to take the early morning meeting so your colleagues can drop their kids off at school.

You notice how often strangers learn you don’t have kids, and search for reassurance that your life must be full in other ways.

“At least you can travel”

“I’m sure you get to spoil your nephews and nieces” or worse yet,

“It’s not too late”

None of these moments seem significant on their own — but together, they shape women in ways we rarely talk about.

THE STORY ISN’T YOURS

The story began long before you were old enough to even question it.

A woman falls in love. She gets married. She becomes a mother. Eventually, a grandmother.

Whether through storybooks, films, family traditions, or everyday conversations, these chapters come to represent the path a woman's life is supposed to follow.

Archtypeally — the Maiden, the Mother, the Crone.

For centuries, these transitions have been publicly witnessed and celebrated.
Weddings. Baby showers. Birth circles. Mother's Day.

For women whose lives take a different shape, there's no equivalent story.

Instead, you inherited stereotypes:

The Spinster. The Childless Cat-lady. The Old Maid.

Even modern language – words like “childless” or “childless” use motherhood as a reference point, defining you by what you don’t have versus who you are.

None of these moments seem significant on their own — but together, they shape women in ways we rarely talk about.

A GUIDED JOURNEY

Spinster. Cat Lady. Childless.
—It's Time for a New Story

To release the inherited story — and author the one that's true.


8-10

women per cohort

9

live sessions

Virtually-led

live sessions

Expertly Guided

Erin Hartley founder of Our Sister•Ship travel community for childfree and childless women

WELCOME, I’M ERIN

a place women’s stories are reflected

Our Sister•Ship began with a longing to see more spaces where women living without children, could see their stories reflected and celebrated.

As a therapist and someone who finds renewal through the novelty of new places, I chose travel because it offers what daily life often cannot. It creates space to set down obligations, step outside routine, and share meaningful experiences. Immersive travel provides the ideal conditions for friendship to grow - not through forced conversation, but through shared discovery, curiosity, and doing life side-by-side.

I chose the name Our Sister•Ship with the metaphor of a vessel in mind — a space capable of holding the many different stories women carry about living without children. Some arrive here by choice, others through circumstances they never imagined, and many somewhere in between. What matters most is that we are traveling together.

This is the space I wish had existed.

WHO IS THIS FOR?

You might identify as childfree by choice, childless not by choice, or simply as a woman whose life doesn’t include children.

What matters isn’t the label you choose or the path that brought you here. What matters is that you’re ready to celebrate this stage of life, embrace the expansiveness that travel offers, and connect with other childfree or childless women walking similar journeys.

WHY THIS MATTERS?

In a culture that still centers motherhood as the defining story of womanhood, women without children often find their lives marginalized, misunderstood, or reduced to stereotypes. From the tired trope of the “childless cat lady” to the assumption that motherhood is the path every woman’s life should follow.

We believe it’s time to write a broader story of womanhood beyond motherhood. One that honors the richness of every path and recognizes that gathering childfree and childless women together in celebration is a powerful act of reclaiming our stories.

WHAT WE
WELCOME

Rewriting the narratives of womanhood

Shared experiences that invite, but never demand connection

Travel that nudges us out of our comfort zone


WHAT YOU
WON’T FIND

Negativity or judgment that’s anti-motherhood, family, or children

Forced or instant intimacy

A rigid agenda with no room for your voice or spontaneity

QUESTIONS WOMEN OFTEN ASK

“I’ll never know and neither will you of the life you don’t choose. We’ll only know that whatever that sister life was, it was important and beautiful and not ours. It was the ghost ship that didn’t carry us. There’s nothing to do but salute it from the shore”.

— Cheryl Strayed

Expert from “Dear Sugar”

A serene beach with footprints in the sand, large rocks near the shoreline, ocean waves, and a cloudy sky.