What does it mean to you to "have it all?" Having it all—I think about it now way more than ever. I didn’t know what people even meant by it before. I used to think it was feminism gone awry. But now I really do think about it in my own way. It means being able to maintain my identity as Naomi, not just as my daughter’s mother. It’s about maintaining that identity via the pursuit of all the things that interest me. But I don’t aspire to have it all, I just don’t want to be compartmentalized. I want all of these things about who I am to work together and make sense.
Talk about your long journey to motherhood. My husband and I have been together since 1999. We both wanted kids, so we went to see a geneticist about thirteen years ago and discussed options for natural or IVF. All this was very new at the time and it sounded like a miracle that we could have a healthy baby. That was just the start. We are both high achievers and wanted to have everything in line before having a child. We ended up having her a lot later than we’d wanted.
What did you expect being a mom to be like? A lot of what I know has been intensified. Anything superlative that I was told before I had a child, I was not buying into it. These sweet moments defy expectations. The love is out of this world and it keeps growing....I'm like "oh shit, this is so big."
Portrait by Etienne Fang