I’ve never been someone with a five-year plan.
I went to university without knowing what I wanted to study, so I chose psychology because I found it interesting, not because I had a career mapped out. When I graduated and realized I needed something more concrete, I went back and got a child and youth work diploma. That turned into a career I genuinely loved, one I held for nearly a decade.
Then life, as it tends to do, had other plans.
A New City, No Village, and Starting Over
After our second child, my husband was relocated for work to a city far from every friend, family member, and familiar face we had. No support system. No village. Just the four of us, building a life completely from scratch.
It took a full year to find our footing. Eventually, the kids settled in, made friends, and joined sports teams. We lived in an adorable bungalow on a court with the best neighbours. We finally exhaled. And then we had a third baby, and I looked around at my life and realized it had become entirely about the home and the family, which I loved, but I was going stir-crazy.
I needed something more. Not just for the finances, but for me to be able to use my brain differently. I needed a spark.
I tried a lot of things. Side hustles that sustained me for a while and a job with the school board that required me to lean on a friend to get my kids to school on time. And even though I was grateful for that help, something about needing to rely on others in that way bothered me. I wanted flexibility that was truly mine.
Stumbling Into Something I Didn’t Know Existed
When we relocated again, 5 years later, and finally settled once again, my aunt, a food blogger, introduced me to something I had never heard of: ghostwriting for food bloggers.
It stopped me in my tracks.
I’ve always loved writing but never thought it could lead anywhere professionally. I was told growing up that I was a good writer. I did well in English, love to read, and am a stickler for grammar, and writing has always been how I process. It’s how I know what I’m thinking. So when I realized there was an entire niche of people who needed exactly what came naturally to me, I jumped in.
And I never looked back.
Why This Career Works for My Life (and Why That’s the Whole Point)
Step by step, I built a freelance ghostwriting business that has grown beyond anything I imagined. But what I want to talk about isn’t just the income; it’s the freedom.
This isn’t “working from home” in the way most people picture it. It’s not doing an office job from your kitchen table on someone else’s schedule. It’s truly designing your work around your life.
I work when it makes sense for me. Whether it’s at 5 am before anyone wakes up, or 11 pm once the kids are in bed. I work from home, from a parking lot outside hockey arenas and soccer fields, and once when the neighbourhood lost power, I worked from the library.
My husband works rotating 12-hour shifts, and the kids have full evenings of sports, so my life doesn’t fit neatly into a 9-to-5 box, and now, finally, my work doesn’t either.
I can be home when the kids walk through the door, have dinner ready, go for a walk with a friend in the afternoon, or do the laundry in the middle of the day. I don’t have to cram everything into a weekend anymore.
And on the financial side, you set your own rates, choose your own clients, and decide how much or how little you take on. The majority of my clients have come through word of mouth. No massive social media following required, no being on camera, and no cold pitching into the void. And for an introvert like me, that’s the dream.
If you want to scale it into an agency someday, you can. If you want to keep it small and manageable, you can do that too. The business bends to your life and not the other way around.
That’s why I love what I do.
And if any part of my story sounds familiar, if you’re the one holding everything together without much left over for yourself, I want you to know this path exists for you, too.
If ghostwriting for food bloggers sounds like something you might want to do, I encourage you to do a self-assessment. You never know what could be waiting for you!
