About Us


About Us
It's not about us...it's about you. So let us share what we have created with you in mind. In a way, it is difficult to describe what SheZoom is...not because there aren't words. On the contrary, there are too many words. So many sites repeat phrases that are certainly well intended, but also cliché. It seems that everybody wants to empower women and enrich their lives and create a safe environment and focus on real women. But how many products actually achieve that?

At SheZoom, we believe in some core principles and we tried to apply them to the site as we created it. We applied them to everything from our features, to the experts we approached to work with us, to the tone we set in the language we use.

The principles that guide us include:

  1. First, do no harm (OK, we borrowed that one). There are all kinds of media outlets in the world and some significant portion of them plays (and has played over the years) to issues of low self esteem. We don't like that. We think life has its ups and downs and there are things we like and maybe like less about ourselves, but we believe in trying to be happy with what we have and who we are. So our tone and our language try to always reflect this.
  2. Do some good. This is easy. Good can mean anything from putting a smile on someone's face to sharing some good advice or maybe even just a recipe. We enable that at SheZoom and will do even more along these lines in the coming weeks and months.
  3. Be respectful. Your mother was right.
  4. Dare to reach. To some, this may just be a tag line (as you can see on the top of all of our pages), but to SheZoomers, it has real teeth. Our great desire is to create a vibrant community that encourages people to do something they've never done before. Whether it's getting that funky haircut, buying that bold print blouse that may shock your monochromatic wardrobe, getting your financial house in order, going somewhere you've never been before, asking for the promotion-you-so-richly-deserve-but-your-boss-has-somehow-forgotten-to-offer-you, or saying something you've always wanted to say to someone you care about but couldn't quite find a way. Trying new things and achieving new heights - cliché or not - is a great feeling and SheZoom wants to play a little role in making that happen.

We invite you to spend time at SheZoom and help make this a reality.

How it all started

Stacey Artandi, SheZoom CEO Stacey Artandi, SheZoom CEO
SheZoom is the brainchild of Stacey Artandi, an accomplished senior executive with extensive experience shaping and growing companies across the media spectrum. Her experience ranges from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies, from newspapers and television to the Internet, a medium she's been committed to since 1996. Most recently she was the Vice President of Online Publishing for American Lawyer Media, the largest legal media company, where she led a turnaround of their Internet businesses to high double-digit growth and profitability. These businesses included legal portal Law.com, as well as lawjobs.com, a legal employment classifieds business, and CLEcenter.com, an e-commerce driven online education business.

Prior to that, she brought her real life marketing and business development experience to the virtual world of There.com, where she led those functions in a ground breaking, 3D avatar-based social networking platform based in Silicon Valley. While there, Stacey enjoyed the first Internet boom as Vice President of Local Online Services for Disney's Go Network, where she launched local portals using the Infoseek search engine as a platform. In 1997, as Vice President of Business and Product Development, she helped start New Century Network, a venture of leading online newspaper companies including the New York Times, Washington Post, Hearst, Gannett and the Tribune Company.

In 1993, she got her first taste of the thrill of a startup when she became the fourth employee and first Vice President of Marketing for the Food Network, where she developed the brand, gained distribution in over 20 million households, launched the original web site, developed a successful merchandising program, and learned how to cook. Way back in her career, she served as Development Project Manager at Tribune Company, where she helped start an internal M&A group leading investments in interactive companies like Peapod; and Director of Marketing for the New York Daily News. She holds a BS in Economics from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.


Our experts

Dr. Lou Aronne Dr. Louis J. Aronne, SheZoom Health Expert
Louis J. Aronne, M.D. is an internationally recognized obesity specialist. He is a Clinical Professor of Medicine at Weill-Cornell Medical College and has an adjunct appointment at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He is Director of the Comprehensive Weight Control Program, a state-of-the-art, multidisciplinary obesity research and treatment program affiliated with New York Presbyterian Hospital. Dr. Aronne is a past president of NAASO, The Obesity Society and a Fellow of the American College of Physicians. He has authored more than 40 papers and book chapters on obesity, and edited the National Institutes of Health Practical Guide to the Identification, Evaluation, and Treatment of Overweight and Obesity in Adults. He has been ranked annually in New York Magazine's Best Doctors in NY since 2001 as a specialist in obesity and internal medicine.

Dr. Aronne was one of the founding hosts of the TV Food Network, co-hosting more than 650 episodes of "Getting Healthy", a nightly call-in show covering a broad variety of topics in health, nutrition, and medicine. He has made dozens of appearances on "Late Night with David Letterman" and the "Late Show with David Letterman" since 1984, and is perhaps best known for diagnosing Dave's heart problem in 2000.

His other television and radio appearances include "The Charlie Rose Show", "The Today Show", "Dateline NBC", "20/20", "48 Hours" and most other national news programs. In 2001 and 2002, Dr. Aronne appeared on and developed the "CBS Early Show's" "Weight Off" series. He put "ABC News" staff and viewers on a diet on "ABC's Good Morning America" in another long term series. He is widely relied upon and quoted in the news media as an expert in the field of weight research including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, People, Newsweek, Good Housekeeping, Redbook, Allure, Cosmopolitan, and Men's Health.

His book, Weigh Less, Live Longer, is published by John Wiley and Sons. This guide to healthy living is now in its second printing.

Dr. Aronne has won several awards for teaching, including the Davidoff Prize from Albert Einstein College of Medicine and the Elliot Hochstein Award from Cornell University. He is a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha medical honor society

A graduate of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, he graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Trinity College. He is married, has 2 children and lives in Greenwich, CT.

Greg Harper Greg Harper, SheZoom Technology Expert
Gregory W. Harper is President of Cerberus Corp., a firm dedicated to assisting businesses in developing and implementing new visual and aural communication technologies. Through Cerberus, Mr. Harper serves as Senior Strategic Advisor to the Chairman of Trans World Entertainment (TWE), the largest mall-based retailer of music and video in the United States. Mr. Harper was instrumental in the development and deployment of the Listening and Viewing System (LVS) that allows shoppers in FYE stores to sample both audio and video content as well as purchase and download tracks. As designer of software systems ranging from distance learning systems to digital media production systems, Mr. Harper has been awarded eight U.S. patents in the area of interactive digital video, and has eight other patents currently pending. Mr. Harper is the cofounder of the renowned Gadgetoff event and is a regular contributor/producer for Gizmorama.

Mr. Harper has had a long and successful career not only in technology but also in television production. In August 2000, Mr. Harper sold Next Venue, a company he co-founded, to IBeam Broadcasting. Next Venue, a leader in streaming media industry, was a spin-off of CNBC Dow Jones Business Video, a joint venture of NBC, Dow Jones Microsoft. Prior to the spin-off, Mr. Harper served as Chief Technologist to the NBC/Microsoft joint venture and was responsible for designing its innovative website. Harper's prior endeavors include work for various television networks and stations including WGBY TV, Springfield, CBS, PBS, France Telecom - TDF and NBC. Mr. Harper is a graduate of Amherst College.

Jeff and Jodie Morgan Jeff and Jodie Morgan, SheZoom Food & Wine Experts
Cookbook authors Jeff and Jodie Morgan live in the village of St. Helena, located at the heart of Napa Valley. Jeff is also a winemaker, who makes SoloRosa dry rosé, Covenant Cabernet Sauvignon, and ZMOR Pinot Noir and Gewurztraminer. The former West Coast editor of Wine Spectator Magazine, Jeff has written Dean & DeLuca: The Food and Wine Cookbook; Rosé, A Guide to the World's Most Versatile Wine; and The PlumpJack Cookbook, Recipes for Living Well. In his spare time, Jeff runs a wine consulting business called M Squared, and teaches at the Culinary Institute of America's Rudd Center for Wine Studies in Napa Valley. Jeff and his wife Jodie co-authored The Working Parents Cookbook (Chronicle Books) a few years back as well.

Jodie is a self-taught cook who, by virtue of her long association with the fine dining world, regularly finds herself cooking for and entertaining a parade of world famous vintners, chefs and food critics who often stop by her Napa Valley kitchen for a meal. Formerly Executive Director of the American Institute of Food & Wine (AIWF), Jodie was actually trained as a social worker specializing in developmental programs and substance abuse treatment for adolescents. Today, she spends a lot of time in her Napa Valley garden, tending to a broad array of herbs, fruits and vegetables which she uses to develop new and exciting recipes to be used in future books.

Trisha Okubo Trisha Okubo, SheZoom Fashion Expert
Trisha Okubo is a fashion expert focused on making style accessible to all, regardless of budget, age, or personal architecture. She founded Omiru: Style for All, a style and shopping website featured by Lucky Magazine. Okubo is a fashion expert for SheZoom, a contributing editor at BlogHer.org, a fashion writer for Fashiontribes Magazines, and a fashion expert at Shopping.com's "What's In Store" blog. As a sought-after expert on fashion and style, she has been interviewed by publications small and large, from the Palo Alto Daily News to the Wall Street Journal.

Charles Purdy Charles Purdy, SheZoom Etiquette Expert
Etiquette expert and writer Charles Purdy, a.k.a. Mr. Social Grace, is the author of the book Urban Etiquette: Marvelous Manners for the Modern Metropolis. His popular manners- and lifestyle-advice column appeared in the San Francisco Weekly newspaper from 2000 through 2005; he has also written regular columns for Genre magazine and PlanetOut's Web sites. His advice can frequently be seen in publications such as Real Simple, and he has appeared on TV shows such as "Life & Style" and "Good Morning Canada."

Julie Ross Julie A. Ross, SheZoom Parenting Expert
Julie A. Ross holds an MA from New York University and is the Executive Director of Parenting Horizons, a company devoted to enriching children's lives through parent and teacher education. She is the author of three books: Practical Parenting for the 21st Century: The Manual You Wish Had Come with Your Child, Joint Custody with a Jerk: Raising a Child with an Uncooperative Ex and Now What Do I Do? A Guide to Raising Elementary Aged Children and is currently working on her fourth book with McGraw Hill for parents of tweens.

Manisha Thakor Manisha Thakor, SheZoom Finance Expert
Manisha Thakor is the co-author of ON MY OWN TWO FEET: A Modern Girl's Guide to Personal Finance. Manisha has extensive experience working in the financial services industry. At various points in her career she has worked as a financial analyst, portfolio manager, and client servicing/marketing executive for leading investment management firms with billions of dollars in assets under management. Manisha earned her MBA degree from Harvard Business School, her BA in American Studies from Wellesley College, and is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charterholder.

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