A bold pivot when plan A falls away
Profile of Berenice Howard-Smith, winner in The Bold Pivot category of The Plot Twist Awards
The Plot Twist Awards happened because and I were frankly bored of seeing the same old success stories (usually involving some 25-year-old who "discovered their purpose" after precisely three minutes of soul-searching). Instead, we've rounded up 30-plus genuinely fascinating midlife women who've zigged when life zagged, created brilliant second acts or simply refused to shuffle into beige cardigans. These are all women with stories worth stealing courage from. We've hosted a celebration party. Now we’re sharing these gems, as well as plotting a coffee table book that won't end up as a dust collector.
Let’s hear from Berenice Howard-Smith. Design became both her voice and her platform for championing overlooked stories.
Rewriting the story nobody prepared you for
While many career stories follow neat trajectories, this graphic designer/art director's path zigzagged through medical appointments, loss and ultimately a bold reinvention. Berenice’s journey proves that sometimes our deepest struggles lead to our most sincere work.
As a schoolgirl watching career videos in the classroom via a clunky telly on wheels, Berenice knew the conventional paths weren't for her, despite her teacher's best efforts at discouragement.
"I'd stare out the window, knowing that I wasn't destined to be a secretary or a nurse, longing for something creative. I had three Blue Peter badges for drawing. Then, one day, a video was playing about being a commercial artist, and I knew that was it, even if my female art teacher said it was a man's job."
Berenice claimed that dream, working her way into a junior designer position after a YTS scheme. Life seemed to be unfolding according to plan, until her first major plot twist around a milestone birthday.
"When I was 29 years old, I stood in the ballroom of a manor house with lots of couples, listening to another talk on IVF. For the next 15 years, my life was a roller coaster of balancing my job with the gruelling demands of medical menopause, egg extraction, injecting myself, pregnancy tests and miscarriages."
Berenice’s husband worked overtime to pay for the treatment and their house restoration was endlessly postponed. Throughout all this, Berenice also studied for a degree in English Literature. In hindsight, she believes she needed to prove to herself that her brain could “achieve”, even when her body could not.
When waiting for the next chapter becomes your story
While juggling the physical and emotional demands of fertility treatment, Berenice’s creative career began to stagnate in ways rarely acknowledged.
"We hear about mothers' careers stalling; the same is true of those who aren't mothers. We work in jobs hoping for maternity pay that never comes. We try to hold the fort whilst feeling like a failure for not being able to do what all women should be able to do."
After collapsing at work and becoming ill with Ovarian Hyper Stimulation Syndrome, Berenice realised how much her professional life had suffered. Berenice took a job to fund the treatment and get maternity pay that never arrived. After being called in for embryo transfer one morning, her boss berated her for 'leaving them in the lurch'. She thought herself unemployable, but found a great job in a leading publishing company that made use of her design skills. But the losses continued to pile up.
Her sixth round of IVF ended without a heartbeat, her mother-in-law passed away, her rescue cat died suddenly and next came redundancy from the job she loved.
When offered another corporate position, something inside Berenice rebelled. A chance sighting of an ad became the turning point that redefined everything.
As Berenice returned from London on a sticky July commute, she realised that this was not the life she wanted. She saw an ad at the railway station for a Masters in Graphic Design and Typography, and her thoughts fell into place. Landing in the course leader's office felt like home.
The conversation nobody started
During her Masters, Berenice did something remarkable. She created a social design project on infertility and uttered the word "childless" in public for the first time. That brave choice became the foundation for meaningful collaborations, including the Full Stop community, for people who are childless not by choice.
"I've qualified as a coach, stood on stages across the country and started to poke about in the grief, realising that I have PTSD but, along with that, a story to tell. I have a value and a worth that often feels fragile, but the more I speak about it, the more others can learn, so that the next generations are better supported."
While building Hello Lovely Design and Co, she taught herself to code and expanded her design skills to fit a digital world. Today, she creates websites, print and branding that helps wellbeing facilitators, charities, small businesses and authors reach more people through accessible, stylish design.
Her story reminds us that sometimes the path not chosen still leads somewhere extraordinary.
"There are no more plot twists. No miracle babies. I am childless not by choice, but I am more, not less, for the experiences."
While brands continue to define midlife women primarily as mothers and grandmothers, her work stands as a reminder that 20% of women are childless, and their experience deserves recognition too. Through design and advocacy, Berenice creates space for stories that too often remain untold – including her own.
Your turn: what identity have you set aside that might help you navigate life's unexpected plot twists?
What would happen if you returned to a passion or skill that once defined you, especially after life has taken unexpected or unwelcome turns? Sometimes our earliest interests contain the seeds of our most meaningful work, even when - perhaps especially when - the story we thought we'd be living turns out differently than planned.
Connect with Berenice
Berenice Howard-Smith on LinkedIn
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🐦⬛ I help midlife women talk about their business and position their skills so that other people want to pay for them. I do it with messaging/positioning strategy and copywriting. And I work with midlife women because I'm convinced we should take over the world and all would be well. Not even half-joking 😂
If you want to talk about positioning your work, messaging strategy, web copy or email marketing, we can have a zero-pressure chat. You can reach me (Sue Moore) at inktank@substack.com
I’m Sue Moore, The Midlife Messaging Strategist & Copywriter. I share smart stuff for writers, plus musings on building a business in midlife.