“Is this your first?” rings endlessly in her ears, haunting her days as well-meaning people ask her about her future child. She rubs her growing stomach, the guilt of every “yes” said to avoid a harder conversation permeating her thoughts, and tries to convince herself that it wasn’t her fault.

Emily is a new mom, a wife, a cat mom, an editor, a writer, and a singer—words and labels that don’t matter much to anyone, but to her, they are the portrait of a full and growing life. She hopes to expand that life with more words each day.