Blessed is She The Power of Sisterhood and Community by Laura Neutzling As the middle child in a family of seven in St. Paul, Minnesota, attorney-turnedwriter Nell O’Leary learned the power of community early in her life—not only with the convenient built-in community she had with her four siblings, but the community found in the Catholic church they attended together. Having that support around her was a defining part of her childhood. “There was always this idea of sticking together,” Nell remembers. “You stick up for your sister, you stick up for your brother. You’re kind of a little unit out there in the world trying to navigate it together. It’s a huge gift.”
When you’re“in court and you’re the attorney, it’s like the ultimate storytelling. A natural storyteller, Nell loved writing in her journals and reading stacks of books, so when she went to college, it seemed natural to major in English. But she also loved watching legal dramas like Perry Mason, which ultimately inspired her after graduation to pursue a career as an attorney. Making the connection from her love of storytelling as an English major to practicing law wasn’t as much of a stretch for Nell as one might think. “When you’re in court and you’re the attorney, it’s like the ultimate storytelling,” Nell observes. “You’re advocating for something. You’re telling people’s stories. And somehow it kind of got ingrained in my subconscious that being an attorney would be part of protecting people’s stories and telling people’s stories.” After practicing for a few years, Nell put her law license on inactive status as she and her husband began welcoming children into their lives. But her longing to tell and advocate for others’ stories was still alive in her heart. With her kids still in diapers, she joined a Facebook group of
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