Empowering childfree voices. Building inclusive workplaces.
We are Childfree is a community-supported storytelling platform that celebrates childfree lives. What began as a portrait series has grown into a global grassroots movement dedicated to destigmatising the childfree choice and fostering change in workplaces and communities.
Our Story
It started in a Berlin taxi in 2016.
I’d just landed when the driver asked the usual questions. Married? Children? When I told him I didn’t have children and didn’t want them, he nearly ran the car off the road. For the next thirty minutes he tried to talk me out of my own life. “Just have one. By the second, you’ll like it.” I was furious. So I did what I always do. I picked up my camera.
I put a call-out on my personal blog asking if any women who didn’t want children would let me photograph them and tell me their story. Forty people responded. I remember thinking: people like me exist. That moment changed my life.
Then We are Childfree was featured in The New York Times and messages started flooding in from all over the world. People who’d felt alone for years, finally felt seen. We knew we couldn’t stop.
We share childfree stories through portraits, podcasts and submissions, from people all over the world. Our work has been covered by The Guardian, Vogue and BBC Radio 2, and we speak at events and organisations across the UK and Europe.
Right now James and I are living full-time in our campervan Dolly, driving across Europe to meet the women and men whose stories need telling. He writes and edits. I photograph. No team, no funding, no investors. Just the two of us and a community that keeps us going.
This year we’re focused on the stories of childfree elders. The people in their sixties, seventies and eighties who made this choice before it even had a name. We want to bring hope to our community and prove to the world that a happy, fulfilling childfree life is absolutely possible.
Whether you’re childfree by choice, circumstance, or still figuring it out, you’re in the right place.
Zoë and James x
OUR HIGHLIGHTS
WHAT WE BELIEVE
Representation matters
Around 1 in 4 people don’t plan to have children. You’d never know it from the media. Without anyone to relate to, a lot of us spent years feeling like there was something wrong with us. There isn’t. We’re just not in the story yet. We are Childfree is changing that.
Childfree lives are valid
We’re called selfish. Immature. Unnatural. For making a conscious choice about our own bodies and lives. We are Childfree exists to show that being childfree is as happy, as full and as meaningful as any other way of living.
OUR SERVICES
At We are Childfree, we focus on building bridges between childfree individuals and parents in workplaces, while also providing vital tools and support for childfree people to live their best lives. Here’s how we help:
Corporate Workshops: We offer Building Bridges workshops that foster understanding and respect between parents and non-parents, providing actionable insights for creating inclusive work environments.
Consulting: We partner with companies to review and advise on policies, ensuring that childfree and non-parents are supported and respected within organisational cultures.
WHY WE DO IT
Living childfree can sometimes feel isolating. But it doesn’t have to.
The workplace, in particular, remains one of the last frontiers for challenging assumptions about parenthood. Through my own journey, I’ve learned the importance of community and empowerment, and that’s what drives our work at We are Childfree.
We believe that everyone, no matter their reproductive choices, deserves a world where they feel supported and valued. I’m passionate about helping corporations create more inclusive environments for their diverse teams and supporting individuals in feeling seen, heard, and empowered.
THE TEAM
Hey there!
We’re Zoë and James. A British married couple who are on a mission to change the way childfree people see themselves, and the way the world see us. Twenty years together, and most of that spent making things, asking difficult questions, and caring deeply about feminist issues.
Zoë is a photographer and designer. James is a writer and editor. Between us we research, photograph, write, edit, build and run everything you see here – no team, no funding, no outside investment.
We built We are Childfree because these stories needed to exist. If you’d like to help us keep telling them, you can support our work here or make a one-off donation.