The language of perseverance
Profile of Nathalie Reis, winner of The Hidden Gem in 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're now sharing these gems, planning a celebration party and plotting a coffee table book that won't end up as a dust collector.
Let’s hear from Nathalie Reis, the Corsican-born language lover who built her business in the shadows.
A Hidden Gem steps into the light
While the spotlight followed overnight success stories, this Corsican-born language lover was quietly building her empire in the shadows. After years of navigating dodgy internet connections and nappy changes, Nathalie's finally stepping into the light with a translation business her teenage self would be absolutely chuffed about, proving that sometimes the most brilliant plot twists take decades to unfold.
The journey home
Some 16-year-olds dream about pop stars. Nathalie Reis fantasised about becoming a translator. She did a degree in English, then some know-it-all told her that wasn't a "proper job," and she detoured into business and economics, because apparently crunching numbers deserved more respect than bringing cultures together through words. After hopping from Corsica to Aix-en-Provence to Paris to London, she finally decided to reclaim her original plot line.
"I was literally fascinated by languages and the magic that happens when borders are brought down and people all over the world can communicate with each other."
But the universe wasn't offering spotlights for translation careers in the prehistoric internet days. While others built visible careers, she was wrestling with technology in the shadows of her study.
"Internet was limited, the router made loud noises, I experienced tech issues every other day and wondered what I was doing in my study, fighting with a slow and unreliable connection and having difficulty finding clients. But I persevered."
The shadow years
Life brought wonderful new chapters with children, though her career temporarily took a different pace. That home office? It became a nursery, and Nathalie balanced family and professional aspirations with thoughtful compromise from a corner of her living room. Her husband's career continued to grow while Nathalie’s adapted to family life and flickered on and off in the background.
"My husband’s career started taking off, mine shrank by the day. With a toddler at home and pregnant with our son, my dream took a back seat. I turned down an opportunity to work as a project manager in a translation agency and another opportunity to work in-house. It seemed that my work life was going one step forward, two backwards."
With childcare costs that rivalled a small mortgage and no family nearby to help, she became virtually invisible in her own career story. Yet Nathalie quietly built the foundations in the hours between school runs.
"My career has evolved with my children's schooling. The more hours they spent at school, the more I worked and made progress. It was slow but steady and had very little impact on my husband or children's daily life because I was always present for them - every guitar concert, every parents' evening, every rugby match, every race, every family event."
Emerging from the shadows
While others feared the darkness that AI and machine translation casts over the industry, Nathalie has used it as motivation to step into new light. In the shadows, she wasn't standing still, she was transforming.
She pivoted gradually from business translation towards more creative industries and trained as a copywriter and transcreator, as well as specialising in SEO translation to add value to her clients - “I've never hesitated to 'go back to school' to learn new things - in fact translators are curious and avid learners."
Stepping into the light
Now Nathalie’s kids have flown the nest and the curtain on her career has finally lifted. The irony isn't lost on her. She spent a career helping other peoples' words shine, while her own brilliance remained in the shadows.
"Translation is not a glamorous job. You're conveying a message initiated by another person but the initial message is not yours. The book you so skillfully translated is still the work of the author of the story. Translators are always in the shadows, even when their name is on a book cover!"
Right now, Nathalie’s claiming her place in the light, defining success on her own terms rather than by others' visibility metrics. Now she helps art, culture, travel, beauty, fashion, wellness and food brands become better-known to French buyers.
With her children grown up, she’s built a very successful business - “success for me is what I wanted it to be, not a global entity. I still enjoy the gymnastics involved in recreating a text in my language, whatever the challenges are and look forward to new ideas, new clients and new opportunities."
Her message to younger women lingering in the shadows? Make time to step forward - "Prioritise yourself more and don't let fear stop you."
In a world that only notices midlife women when selling anti-ageing miracles, Nathalie proves that emerging from the shadows at your own pace can be the most powerful plot twist of all. She may have spent decades in the background, but now she's translating her experience into a spotlight of her own making.
Your turn: what's waiting in the wings?
Many of us spend years quietly building skills and juggling responsibilities behind the scenes, much like Nathalie did while raising her family. What talents or ambitions have you kept in the background that might be ready for their moment in the spotlight, now that other chapters of your life have evolved?
Connect with Nathalie
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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.