You’ve heard of wedding registries and baby registries, but what about divorce registries?
“In 2019, my husband and I decided to get divorced,” said Olivia Howell, the CEO and co-founder of Fresh Starts Registry. So she and her sister went through her home, getting rid of any emotionally-charged items.
“As well as half my stuff was gone,” Howell explained.
“I had this 'aha' moment. We celebrate babies and we celebrate weddings, and that's wonderful, and I had all that. But this was the moment I really needed the support,” she said.
Olivia Howell and her sister Genevieve Dreizen decided to start Fresh Starts Registry.
“How do we bridge that gap, how do we teach people how to support and how do we teach people how to ask for support?,” said Dreizen, a co-founder of the company.
The platform allows users to create a registry, powered by Amazon, for items they need after a divorce or other major life change. It also provides a list of experts from therapists to divorce lawyers and coaches.
“That is our mission is to make people feel less alone, nobody should ever feel alone going through these big changes,” Dreizen said.
“We get a lot of people who will say, ‘Well I just bought you a wedding present, why am I buying you a divorce present?’. We believe at Fresh Starts that these are not gifts like I said, these are not presents, this is support,” Howell said.
Stats from the CDC show that about 43 percent of first marriages end in separation or divorce within 15 years. Divorce is also considered the second-most stressful life event behind the death of a loved one, according to the Holmes and Rahe Stress Scale. Divorce is followed by moving, and then a major illness or injury.
“When you go through it, all you get is shame at the end,” Howell said.
Fresh Starts Registry wants to turn that shame into empowerment.
“We see divorce as an empowering movement that you can do for yourself and your children,” Howell said.
It is free to build a registry and free to access the expert guide. The company makes money by charging experts to be a Fresh Starts expert.