For 6 years I wrote under a beautiful butterfly and a bold demand: Let ME Out!! I started this blog as a mom of 2 – a preschooler and a toddler – when I desperately needed to dive into my creativity and find myself. I asked you to come along with me for the ride, and you did. And now here I am. I’m out! It’s time to stretch my wings under a rebrand.

I’m Taslim Jaffer. Welcome to my new site.

I’ve known a rebrand was coming for the last couple years. That fact hit home every time I’d be at a blogger event and someone would say, “Oh heyyyyy! You’re Let ME Out!!” while squinting at me as though trying to find my avatar in who stood before them. Mmmm…yes. At one time, I was. But there’s a lot more to who I am and to my work now, and I finally have a space to share all of that with you.

My friend Raj, from Pink Chai Media, was an enormous part of this transition. As exciting as a rebrand is, there are many technical and design elements, and big-picture thinking required that can be exhausting to figure out. She made the process smooth and fun with her savviness and passion for helping entrepreneurs put their best out there. And through it all, she helped me see myself in a different light. The photographer on her team, Aziz, was just as excited for my changes and supported me with his talent in visuals and photography. Thanks, team Pink Chai!

I’m ready to discover the world as the woman I am now: entering my 40s, focused on my professional and personal goals, a lover of the arts, wanderlust and a mom of school-aged kids.

Image credit: Jamie Khau www.stylingtheinside.com

And this is where I’d like to share all that with you. I’ll also keep you in the loop about my recent writings that are published outside this blog. And for editors and publishers, I’ve created a portfolio of work that I will keep updated. As I rediscovered my love of writing through blogging, I also became passionate about teaching others how to write their own stories. This is a fun part of my work week! My current community and rehabilitative writing classes will be posted on this site, too.

From Then To Now

Six years ago when I started blogging, I had my preschooler and my toddler underfoot. I was writing in little bits and spurts, and was just growing into the identity of ‘writer’ while working as a speech therapist. Now I have 3 kids who are busy at school all day. Writing is my full-time career and my love. It’s how I earn an income but also how I know who I am, how I discover the world, how I share that world, how I speak up about what matters. Though I am comfortable with my identity now as a writer, I also love that it stretches me. I hope to never reach a point where I say, “I’ve written it all.”

To my Let ME Out!! readers, thank you. I truly hope you benefited from the blog posts and the personal development workbooks. You’re my crew who will especially love my new section called Inspired Living. And to anyone who’s stopping here for the first time, I hope we can get to know each other better.

I’d love to hear from you in the comments! Are you a reader from the Let ME Out!! days? Or did you just stumble here today for the first time?