LAUREN B. MANGIAFORTE

Writer, media lover, patroness of arts, probable spaniel, champagne-drinker, unwitting entrepreneur, polyglot, one woman show, modernist, traveler, equality-seeker for guys and gals.

From the Midwest. Born to a lawyer (where the words come from) and an international sales director (aaand there's the wanderlust). Oldest of four hilarious children; in related news, have seen every episode of Full House at least 5 times.

My first memory? Playing on a swingset at Notre Dame while my mom was in law school and being terrified by the guy who mowed the lawn. I outgrew my fear and eventually made tons of memories at Saint Mary's College, the all-girls school across the street from ND. After snapping up a degree in English and Theatre, I headed to Scotland to get a master's at the University of St Andrews (good enough for Wills and Kate, good enough for me).

I loved my time in the tiny town on the North Sea, and ventured out of it frequently to explore Europe -- with a couple of summers spent in Berlin and several trips to France and Italy among others. It. Was. Awesome. As has been the experience of living in New York City for the last year and change.

I get super excited about the successes of my talented friends, family, colleagues, and clients. And the future of media, especially the written word and its importance in the digital space.

Some favorite things include The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Metropolitan Opera, and things that don't have the word "metropolitan" in them at all, such as epic novels, old movies, travels, languages, fresh flowers, and anything having to do with the Lost Generation. I'm also a fairly intense football fan (a barman in Scotland once famously called me "Miss Tourette's"...) and have had nightmares recently about Aaron Rodgers signing with the Bears.

I recently published my first novel, The Boys Who Wouldn't Grow Up. You can learn more about it at my full website, www.laurenmangiaforte.com.

If you're a potential business contact, you should know my motto is "fortune favors the brave."

If you're anyone else, you should know it's Hemingway: "once you stop doing things for fun, you might as well be dead."

Check out the links below to see what I've been up to.