SPEAKER INTERVIEW: Stephanie Hansen

This is a series of interviews with the speakers of Digital Family Summit, June 29-July 1.
Read all of the speaker interviews
See a list of our speakers
See our full schedule
Register for the conference

 Stephanie Hansen left the corporate world 6 years ago to focus on her true love, chauffeuring, also known as, raising two teenagers. Stephanie didn’t leave her motivation in the boardroom. Instead, she began to immerse herself into the world of social media. 3.5 years later she is currently the Online Community Manager for 2 national magazines and handles social media for a DIY and craft conference. Stephanie considers herself to be well rounded and realizes that one can not live on work alone. Her spare time is spent reading, cooking, eating, blogging, tweeting, watching trashy reality TV, and cuddling up in her Snuggie while riding her unicorn. All this while raising 2 growing teenagers, a Papillon, and a chinchilla with her husband Brian.

twitter: @sahans 
website: The Daily Blarg
session:  The Family That Blogs Together, Saturday 6/30/2012 11:15 am-12:30 pm

How did you get involved with blogging?
My husband is the one that actually introduced me into the world of Twitter and blogging. At first I was hesitant and didn’t really understand why anyone would be interested in what I had to say. I slowly began reading blogs and following people on Twitter and the rest is history. I realized that blogging is about a community and so much more than just words on a computer screen.

What’s your favorite technology to help you do your digital work?
It’s not really a secret but, my iPhone, or really any smartphone for that matter. You can keep up with blogs, tweeting, any of your social media outlets all at your fingertips. I would say it is a must if you want to stay connected.

What blogs do you read regularly?
It varies from day to day. I do most of my blog reading in a “reader” so I don’t necessarily visit any blogs daily. But some websites that I typically visit on a regular basis are:

www.cnn.com-Breaking news, world news, I try to be a little on top of things so I only sound like a partial idiot.
www.weather.com-I have no idea why… I am obsessed with weather. I am a 90 year old man.
www.eonline.com-Woman can not live on world news and weather alone. You need to know what reality stars are in rehab.

If you could travel back in time and send yourself a message, what would it be?
Slow down. You don’t have to try to do everything or be everyone all at once. Just enjoy life and be a teenager. It doesn’t last for long.

What are you going to talk about at the conference?
My son and I are on the family blogging panel. We hope to shed light on how technology has molded our family relationship and brought us closer together vs. farther apart.

What do you think is the greatest opportunity for digital teens today?
I don’t think we even can comprehend the opportunities that are available to our kids in the future. What they will be doing and working with hasn’t even been invented yet. I think as parents we need to support our kids in discovering or inventing or being a part of the next “big thing”.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

 Adam Gertsacov is the co-founder and co-organizer of Digital Family Summit.  He wears many hats, including those of a professional clown, an author and publisher, an artist/educator, a non-profit administrator, a P.T. Barnum impersonator, a flea circus impresario, and the esteemed hat of the Clown Laureate of Greenbelt, Maryland.