Cool Girls with Tag: paleo

Jackie Hirsch

Name: Jackie Ossin Hirsch
Age: 43
Location: Maitland, FL
Occupation: Serial Entrepreneur

Floridian business maven Jackie Hirsch always knew she was going to be at the helm of a company, even when she was growing up outside of Orlando.

“I always wanted to own businesses,” she says. “I actually didn’t think that was strange, or that it was strange that I didn’t know of any women who owned their own business. My first real job was Entrepreneur Jackie Hirschwhen I was 16. I worked at a tourist attraction, took pictures
and made pictures into buttons and keychains. I walked around asking people if they wanted them and made them on the spot; it was face-to-face direct sales. I’d get a lot of “no’s” and then some yeses. I used to earn $30-$50/hr for 4 hours 3 nights a week.”

Not bad for a sixteen year old!

After becoming an entrepreneurial adult and marrying her husband, Michael, Jackie decided that it was time to embark on her other lifelong dream of motherhood. But conception was a challenge. Eventually, their daughter Malena was born, but the struggles did not end with her arrival.

“We hoped to keep growing our family, but after five miscarriages, I felt like a shadow of myself. Outwardly, I led a successful life as a business owner. But grief had left me emotionally and physically depleted. Despite my circumstances, I was determined to
be the best wife and mom I could, but I needed a lift of energy to become that woman again.”

As she struggled with her fertility and the accompanying feelings of loss and defeat, she discovered matcha, an ages-old beverage made from finely-ground green tea powder.

Matcha's mood boost gave Jackie the idea to found Healing Butterfly“Matcha was a mood boost for me and then I thought, I wish there were a healthy hot chocolate matcha…pumpkin spice…ginger…,” she said. “I loved that it didn’t need brewing – I could just stir a spoonful right into water. It gave me calm, focused energy and lifted my mood. I started laughing and feeling like myself again.”

It was Jackie’s newfound love for matcha, coupled with the idea of incorporating other superfoods and flavors, that led to her founding Healing Butterfly. “There wasn’t anything like that on the market, so I decided to create it,” she says.

Between networking, sales, manufacturing, new software, technical tinkering and brainstorming, Jackie is always busy. By having a hand in multiple companies, she finds her days can vary from meetings to marketing, managing inventory with her husband, or going out into the community to find new ways to introduce her products.

Fortunately for her, Healing Butterfly provides something that is in incredibly high demand, especially these days: functional foods. Choose from Pumpkin Spice, Early Grey, or Vanilla flavored Matcha!Matcha has less caffeine than coffee, so it offers less stress to the adrenal glands. Their new turmeric golden milk blends provide a
tasty way to get antioxidants and anti-inflammatory benefits. And their newest product, Aqua Sprout, is a plant-based protein that also has fiber, omegas, iron, and even immune-boosting, skin-saving chlorophyll. Many of their products are vegan, paleo, keto,
or Weight Watchers friendly, too.

When she’s not spending time with her husband and daughter, Jackie is indulging in yoga, reading, walking outside…or dreaming up new recipes for Healing Butterfly!

Jackie and Healing Butterfly's TV appearance!So what does this wellness warrior want to share with young girls growing up in a time where health and taking care of your body is more important than ever?

“Love yourself more, then you can love others more and just get along better in the world. If you love yourself, every bit of yourself, you’ll stop judging yourself and you’ll have more compassion for others. Also, eating well saves you time and affects your future
descendants positively for generations; junk food will affect your descendants negatively in the future. Food is that powerful. Consume it wisely.”

Sage advice from this superfood superstar! For her and Healing Butterfly’s healthy contributions to the beverage market, and her body and business savvy, we think Jackie Hirsch is one Cool Girl!

For more information on Healing Butterfly, check them out on Instagram and Facebook!

Stephanie Smith

Name: Stephanie Smith
Age: 26
Location: Seattle, Washington
Occupation: Ph.D. Candidate and teaching assistant, Department of Biology at the University of Washington, Seattle

Ph.D. candidate and illustrator Stephanie Smith was a natural born biologist. She spent her childhood rifling around the dirt for treasures like “tiny frogs, raccoons, mushrooms, cicada shells, worms, and wild strawberries.”

Those fledgling years in Newark, Ohio sparked her passion, which she now channels in her teaching assistantship and studies at the Department of Biology at the University of Washington in Seattle.

“When I went to college I was originally interested in paleoanthropology, but I took a mammal evolution class my second semester and that was what really got me interested in fossil mammals in general,” Stephanie explains. “I asked the professor if I could work in his lab and he took me on to wash and organize mammal fossils, and to sort through fossiliferous sediment (read: dirt with tiiiiiny fossils in it) under a microscope. That volunteer position was the thing that really started to get me excited about studying mammals.”

The summer following her sophomore year of college offered her an opportunity to do field work in the Bighorn Basin in Wyoming with Ken Rose and his field crew.

“On our first day out collecting fossils, I remember I found a jaw of a tiny horse (Hyracotherium) with three teeth in it, and I think I decided that day that I wanted to do this forever,” she says.

These days, much of Stephanie’s time is dedicated to completing her Ph.D. dissertation and illustrating things she finds interesting in nature.

“I’m working with a bunch of collaborators right now on a manuscript of one of my dissertation chapters, where we’re looking at changes in the type and relative abundance of different kinds of mammals on the landscape right after the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) mass extinction, which is the one that wiped out all dinosaurs except birds,” she says.

In the classroom, Stephanie is assisting a class on the evolution of mammals, and much of her lesson planning includes illustrating what’s taught.

“I get to draw these big mural-type figures on the board for my students when I teach about them. I find that using simplified line drawings and flow-charts can help my students grasp complicated concepts, especially people who are very visual learners,” she explains.

Beyond the classroom, Stephanie has designed the t-shirt for the Discoveries in Geoscience (DIG) Field School, once again using her artistic talent combined with her love of paleontology.

The DIG is a free professional development opportunity where K-12 STEM teachers come join our research team in the field for four days of research experience and hijinks. I’ve been a field instructor for the DIG for five years and it’s one of my favorite things to be involved in because of how excited the teachers get about paleontology!”

In the future, Stephanie hopes to get a job working in a natural history museum where she could ideally do her research, write grants, and use her illustration skills to inform and inspire the public about science.

“Science communication is really important to me, and illustration lets me inject more creativity and personality into the process,” she says.

And beyond that personality powering her paleontological prowess, what message does Stephanie hope to communicate to young women stoked by science?

“Don’t be afraid to go out and learn new things for yourself! You can learn about a million things just by observing what’s going on in the world around you, and asking questions and investigating. Learning is not just a thing that happens in a classroom.”

Very cool advice from a very cool girl! Thanks, Stephanie, and best of luck with your dissertation!

Some internet offerings if you’re looking to check out Stephanie in action on Instagram, Twitter, or her website.