Hilary Nelson Jacobs spent much of her career as a strategic planner; in mid-life she changed gears and turned to writing creative nonfiction, embracing the reality that life confounds our careful planning. Hilary has written about raising her trans son and is currently working on a memoir about the gray area of consent in the early 1980s. Her writing has appeared in The Rumpus, The Write Launch, and Role Reboot. She received her M.F.A. from Antioch University and holds a B.A. in Economics from Harvard University, which led to her six-word memoir, Harvard Didn’t Prepare Me for Life. Hilary and her husband Bob, a screenwriter, live in the Atwater Village neighborhood of Los Angeles, close to their two adult sons. You can reach her at hilarynelsonjacobs.com, @HNJacobs on Instagram, and @HilaryNJacobs on X.
I think every parent trying to protect their child wants to be the bulletproof vest. At the same time, we also know that we shouldn’t necessarily protect them wholly.