Starting over during perimenopause and midlife doesn't always mean changing careers—sometimes it means creating entirely new solutions the world desperately needs. In this episode, meet Tara Miko Ballentine, founder of Bright Littles, who transformed her experience of childhood sexual assault into a company helping parents have crucial conversations with kids about consent, boundaries, safety, and diversity.

For women over 40 navigating midlife reinvention, Tara's story offers powerful proof that your second act can combine personal healing with public purpose. She launched Bright Littles during the pandemic while parenting full-time, and four years later continues building without breaking even—side hustling, pivoting constantly, and facing the unique challenges female founders encounter when seeking funding.

This conversation offers practical wisdom for midlife women pursuing dreams that matter: how to start before you feel ready, how to find courage capital when everyone questions your path, and how to build something meaningful while managing all the other responsibilities of life after 40.

What You'll Learn:

• How to change careers after 40 with purpose — Tara shares her journey from fashion and marketing to founding an education company, proving midlife career pivots can create entirely new industries
• Starting over during menopause with limited resources — Learn how to launch a business while working full-time, parenting, and navigating the financial realities of midlife entrepreneurship
• Building confidence after 40 as a female founder — Discover strategies for persisting when funding goes to men with ideas while women with products face barriers
• Perimenopause motivation for women entrepreneurs — How to maintain your North Star mission when the journey tests every ounce of your resolve
• Women over 40 starting businesses — Practical wisdom about pivoting, learning new skills (even tech!), and building sustainable side hustles
• Midlife transformation through purpose — How personal pain can fuel public mission when you're ready to turn wounds into wisdom
• Second act career success stories — Real talk about what four years of building looks like without breaking even, and why mission sometimes matters more than metrics

Key Timestamps:

0:00 - Introduction

2:15 - The pandemic moment that sparked Bright Littles

6:30 - Crossing personal and business life for the first time

10:00 - The "am I ready?" questions every founder asks

13:00 - Why 95% of childhood sexual abuse is preventable

18:15 - How to start conversations before problems happen

22:00 - Pivoting from physical products to digital during tariffs

26:00 - The "Periods and Polish" event and online backlash

31:00 - How to support Bright Littles' mission

Key Takeaways:

• For midlife career changers: Start with what you know, then pivot as you learn—Tara began with fashion/product experience and adapted everything as she discovered publishing, retail, and subscription models
• For women over 40 seeking purpose: Your personal experience isn't a liability; it's your competitive advantage. Tara's childhood trauma became her deepest source of mission clarity
• For perimenopause entrepreneurs: Side hustling is sustainable—Tara worked as a CMO while building Bright Littles, still consults for income, and has built something meaningful without traditional funding

Featured Quote:

"I feel so passionate about what I am doing. I think most people probably would've quit. I've not financially broke even in four years. That is not for everybody. But I feel like when I started this company, it was more of a vitamin than a painkiller—I'm asking you to do something before there's a problem." — Tara Miko Ballentine

Resources & Links:

• Bright Littles: brightlittles.com
• Free conversation resources available on website
• Nominated by: Christina Testut (Episode on body image and children's literature
• Tara nominates: Christine Godfrey of Godfrey PR

About Tara Miko Ballentine:

Tara Miko Ballentine is a serial entrepreneur and founder/CEO of Bright Littles, an education company helping families have important conversations about diversity, safety, consent, boundaries, and health. A survivor of childhood sexual assault, Tara transformed her personal experience into a mission preparing children before problems happen rather than addressing trauma after the fact. She partnered with a structural educational engineer and PhD in family therapy to create conversation cards, interactive journals, and a digital Conversation Club serving families nationwide. Tara lives with her daughter and continues building Bright Littles while navigating the challenges of female entrepreneurship, including pivoting to entirely digital offerings in response to tariffs.

About Your Host:

Aransas Savas is a wellbeing and leadership coach specializing in helping women over 40 navigate midlife transitions, career changes, and second-act reinvention. With 20+ years of behavioral research experience partnering with companies like Disney, Weight Watchers, and Best Buy, she hosts The Uplifters Podcast, featuring women doing transformative work in the second half of their lives. Aransas brings both research rigor and personal experience to conversations about courage capital, midlife transformation, and building meaningful second acts.

Connect with Aransas:

• Instagram: @aransas_savas
• Podcast Instagram: @the_uplifters_podcast
• TikTok: @theuplifterspodcast
• Facebook: Aransas Savas
• Website: theuplifterspodcast.com
• YouTube: @theuplifterspodcast
• LinkedIn: Aransas Savas

Keywords:

perimenopause career change, women over 40, midlife reinvention, menopause second act, starting over at 40, women changing careers 40s, midlife transition women, second half of life, courage capital, midlife transformation, women entrepreneurs over 40, female founders midlife, perimenopause motivation, starting business during menopause, midlife purpose women, second act career women, women 40s new career, building confidence after 40, midlife dreams women, perimenopause fresh start

TUP EP 139

As someone who's built my career around [00:00:30] rigorous science, I super love that Nutrafol was the first brand to clinically study hair thinning on menopausal women, which is why I am so proud to have them as a sponsor. Nutrafol takes a whole body approach to [00:00:45] hair health supporting you throughout your life stages.

You'll hear in this conversation both how she integrates this into the rest of her life and the other things that matter to her, and [00:01:45] how she keeps doing scary stuff like. Looking for funding to grow and expand the impact of her big, brave dream. Tara, thank you so much for taking [00:02:00] time to hang out with us today.

Thank you for having me. I'm excited. So take us back to the moment that you were like, I see this need in the world and I'm gonna do something about it.

[00:02:30] It was just us and I only have one. So we were just this like little teeny tiny island of three and. A lot was starting to happen in the world, and for me, there was this moment of realizing that I had grown up in [00:02:45] an environment where I had been protected, thus leaving me not prepared for the world. And I wanted to change that by preparing my daughter so she could protect herself when she goes out into [00:03:00] the world.

We're not trying to stop the bullying, I wish, but that, that's gonna happen. And so instead of addressing it after the fact, what if I prepared my daughter so that when it happens, it doesn't become hopefully this like [00:03:45] core changing moment of her life, of her personality versus. Kind of like water off a duck's back, like you think that of me.

Do the work. And so I am just crazy enough that I thought and did

I have [00:04:45] a 14-year-old and a newly minted 17-year-old. And the most important thing I can do with my kids is create mutual trust. And I think that happens in all relationships. Yeah. Through communication. And so a super [00:05:00] love what you're doing to make it easier for us to feel like we have the support and resources we need in order to develop mutual trust.

But had you started a company before.

Aransas Savas: Hmm.

And I also have fun. You know, it makes me a better mom by doing this conversations that I've tackled with her. I just could not even imagine. They were things that like I never [00:06:15] learned, like, you know, it was really later in life and so there's been some healing of my little girl self, if you will, because I'm realizing as she's growing, as we are growing together, just feeling like I [00:06:30] can't go back and change things for me, but like.

Aransas Savas: I love that. I think though, for any founder, anyone who's building any dream, there are always. Am I ready conversations in their own mind and whether [00:07:00] it's, do I have enough resources, money, time, energy?

Yep. Do I know the right people? Am I smart enough? What were some of those questions for you? I

Tara Miko Ballentine: mean,

Aransas Savas: I still ask myself those questions to be honest. Amen. Same girl. Thank you for admitting it. That

Aransas Savas: what the, but nobody says that. We're like all walking around with these spheres and so people then believe like.

Tara, she is just brave and bold. I'm, but not me.

I've had experience in product company and in service company, so there was a part of that that I'd been there and I'd come kind of mainly from fashion. Actually. This is [00:08:00] product isn't, product is a product, and so I was a little bit more in the luxury market, so going from quality to selling quantity was very different.

'cause publishing has deals. And they can like return books and it's a [00:08:45] distribution system that like, I actually didn't realize that so many things, there's not one way to start a company. And now if I look back, like there was 55 million ways I went with the thing that I, I knew the most, which [00:09:00] was going to markets and having a booth and trying to sell to store.

And I took the leap about a year and a half ago to do this full time, but I still side hustle. I sent out a scope of work yesterday to do marketing consulting. I'm still trying to make it. I am, and I've been doing this [00:09:45] for four years.

Aransas Savas: Yeah. I love that you said that. I don't think any of us entered this highway totally knowing where we were going.

So much of success for so many of us is actually measured in agility and the willingness to keep following the breadcrumbs.

For a long time before [00:10:30] anybody else does, and that is a really hard thing to do because for most entrepreneurs, we don't have a lot of money. We can't have a big staff, and so. It is a very lonely [00:10:45] place to survive. Yeah, and I think that there's a lot of mental health issues that can come with being an entrepreneur, especially if you are an entrepreneur that is social justice and [00:11:00] trying to put out good in the world.

Mm-hmm. But I need the money to get the traction. Like it, it just drives me bat shit crazy. But for better or for worse, and it's depending on the day, the minute or the hour, I am so fricking [00:11:45] headstrong that I. Feel so passionate about what I am doing. I think most people probably would've quit PS I've not financially broke even in four [00:12:00] years.

You wanna fix that problem. You're looking for the painkiller, I'm the vitamin, I'm saying. I don't know when it's gonna happen. Like I'm pretty sure it's gonna happen, but why [00:12:30] wouldn't you do it? I'm a vitamin. I'm asking you to do something before there's a problem. And potentially you do not see the power of that little conversation that you had until much later [00:12:45] in life or potentially ever.

And those are the things that like, I now know if I would've had a conversation, [00:13:30] could I have used my voice more? Could I have said something like, 'cause when I think back, you know. It was a family friend. It started very gradually in becoming my friend and trusting so. That being said, [00:13:45] there's all kinds of conversations to have right now.

Mm-hmm. There's consent, there's boundaries, there's online safety. One of our conversations this month is what if a, a friend wants to show us something inappropriate online.

Aransas Savas: Mm-hmm.

And the last thing I'll say is our kids are a sponge. Mm-hmm. And if we're waiting till after the fact. Somebody else has filled that sponge with water. There's only so [00:14:15] mm-hmm. Water you can put in a sponge. There's only so much information. Well, I want to be that drop of water to talk to her about those things, because if I wait to do it, the information that I try to give her is gonna [00:14:30] roll off.

Aransas Savas: Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. I'm not saying all bad, but like it just naturally, organically happens. Yeah.

What do I believe about this? What do I think? Yeah. And I will add to your story because I, I really wanna talk about this more loudly. We had a [00:15:30] situation with one of my daughters, and she has given explicit permission to talk about it openly, where she was groomed by a teacher prior to COVID, and then virtually he lured her into a private Zoom room at age 10 and exposed himself [00:15:45] to her.

Thank God for COVID, honestly, and for my [00:16:15] first time ever working from home that I happened to be working inches away from her when it happened. And I have so much to say on this because our systems are so messed up that even though we had like. They can't actually do anything about child [00:16:30] endangerment in most states in America.

Huh. This felt funny. This felt weird. And we're like, what a nice teacher, because we [00:17:00] weren't thinking about grooming. We didn't know what it looked like, and so we didn't say, there's something weird here and we think it might be grooming. And let's get our kid out of this situation and alert the the school.

Aransas Savas: Thank you. I'm so sorry it happened to you, and it makes me so angry for both of you, all of us. And I think we have to talk about it or family after family is gonna go through the same thing.

I don't know where to start. I don't know what to say. I don't wanna mess it up. And then there's two [00:17:45] roads. I don't have them or. I figure out how to have them, and I did team up with a structural educational engineer and a PhD in family therapy that helped create the products because I was of that camp of [00:18:00] like, I just didn't know where to start because in my head I go to like the biggest conversation ever and it actually doesn't have to be that way.

We're usually the problem. So yeah, I get that. And I just, you know, whether it's my story or your story, I just am constantly. Trying so [00:18:45] hard to convince parents to start these conversations earlier than they think, and not to mention like we're so good at having conversations that are happening in our home.

Aransas Savas: Mm-hmm.

Our pillars are diversity, safety, self nature, and health.

Tara Miko Ballentine: self is giving them the tools that they need for, you know, mental health regulation, consent, and boundaries, all those things. Health is around, why does someone have an allergy? Talking about moving your bodies, giving the tools so that they can make healthy [00:19:45] decisions throughout their life.

It's what your kids' life looks like, and I think it's really important to teach responsibility, stand up for one [00:20:15] another, and so we try to have a worldly conversation with kiddos and we make it fun. How do people use the cards? Well, this is a fun one for entrepreneurs. So we have the conversation cards, which was my first product, [00:20:30] and these are great on a road trip, just literally at the dinner table, and it brings everybody into the conversation.

We're also talking about how [00:21:00] that your child may not have the phone in their hand, but it doesn't mean that another child doesn't.

Aransas Savas: Mm-hmm.

Aransas Savas: Mm.

Like how do you [00:21:45] price a subscription? The tech of it. I didn't wanna build an app because I still had products slash I didn't have enough money to do that, like. When I say I have learned and I have pivoted and I probably will again, but it's been, it's been quite the [00:22:00] journey. 'cause like you just don't know what's gonna happen.

Aransas Savas: And learning how to move with that and find the opportunity in there.

Tara Miko Ballentine: Yeah. I've actually embraced it. Like I wish I didn't have to deal with it, [00:23:00] but at the end of the day, like. Is it easier to use our product now? Yes. Is it actually a lot more affordable? Yes. So I'm all about finding kind of the silver lining in the situation, which right now in the world that we live in, [00:23:15] I'm trying to teach my daughter to get up and to have joy.

Where's the good in this? Like, how can I make this product better? How can I. I don't know. Otherwise, I don't know how I would survive.

And actively choosing to, in small ways, usually in our own backyard, make a difference. And it's so energizing, I think, to be reminded [00:24:30] through stories like yours that it doesn't require us to be perfect. It doesn't require us to have all the answers. It just requires us to get started and tackle change.

One tiny challenge at a time.

Aransas Savas: to be mission

I dunno. I mean, I've had people who have said, if you didn't make the product so [00:25:15] left, you could probably have more sales. And I'm like, as in making it racist, like, 'cause is that what you're saying? Like, and, and if I took out all the topics that upset people, I just don't know how much of a company I would [00:25:30] have.

You do not own that follower and you do not own that. Like the most valuable thing that you can get is an email. That is your goal. [00:26:00] So I've been trying to have events where I can show people who we are. And collect emails. So we had a, an event called Periods and Polish. I rented out a nail salon and had, it was between 20 to 25 youth come and they [00:26:15] learned about menstruation while they got manicures.

Aransas Savas: No, and I was like, I know a lot of things is this because nobody talked to him about it and he doesn't understand [00:26:45] why he didn't get a period.

Tara Miko Ballentine: I understand that a lot of things don't math right now in the world, but like what? And that, you know,

Aransas Savas: that's something.

NPS. My product isn't female or male. It was really important to me. As much [00:27:15] as I'm raising a little girl and I'm very pro woman and I'm all about us having healthcare and choice, I do believe a thousand percent. The only way we're going to have a better world is if we also have boys at the table [00:27:30] learning like it's, I don't want my daughter to carry the weight of her all.

Aransas Savas: Mm-hmm. And

Because I came from a divorced family and my entire life, like I came from a broken family is what I was told my whole life. And now I'm like, that is such a messed up thing to tell a kiddo. Yeah. So [00:28:15] all families, all shapes all welcome at bright littles everyone.

Aransas Savas: I love that. And it is reality. We're not gonna spend our lives hopefully surrounded by people who look and think like us.

Tara Miko Ballentine: We talk about in our family a lot, always talk about like who's sitting at our dinner table of life.

There's, you know, rock and roll, there's, I love music from other countries. I'm always searching out new artists. I even have a little country on there. I love jazz. And equally our tables are food. You know, [00:29:30] we've got, you know, I, I love sushi, I love Mexican food. I love, um, we have a new Korean barbecue, like we embrace.

I never [00:30:15] grew up questioning if it was okay to be gay. Like there was always different cultures and different people in my life. And because it just was such a normal part that we would break bread with these people, I just have never questioned it. And if [00:30:30] anything, like standing up for them right now, like why shouldn't they be afforded the same dinner table that I want for my family?

Tara Miko Ballentine: In my experience, happy people that are in love and they're happy. Don't go do wish harm on people, but that's another podcast that, but

Yeah. So. As Uplifters, we love to uplift other uplifters. How can we best support you in Bright Littles? Tara,

And if you join for a year, it's $4 and 99 cents a month. It's less than a cup of coffee, but I know everybody is at different places and stages in life, and so we have tons of free resources to [00:31:45] start this conversation. Yeah, I mean, I, I would love for you to check out Bright Littles, but even if you don't.

Aransas Savas: Hmm. Well said. Beach Cast on our show nominates another guest. You were nominated for the show [00:32:15] by Christina Test, who I love.

Who would you like to nominate?

They're just [00:32:45] women, literally uplifting women's businesses. And I wouldn't be where I'm at if it wasn't for them. Like I was on Forbes because of them and I was on CNN because of them, and they really helped get me some street cred, if you will. [00:33:00] So I just love them and everything that they do and it's super important as an entrepreneur to have ACEs in their places and they're one of my ACEs.

Tara Miko Ballentine: [00:33:30] Thank you. I'm on, in the famous words, I just keep swimming.

Aransas Savas: Thank you for listening to the Uplifters podcast.

Mmm,

Be around best love relish in a new prime and a tree in [00:34:30] springtime dance. With that all hindsight, bring the sun to twilight. Lift you up, ball,

lift you up,

lift you up.

lift, you

Um, beautiful. I cried. It's that little thing you did with your voice, right? In the pre-course, right? Uhhuh. Uhhuh. I was like, mommy, quiet mommy. [00:35:30] Stop crying. You're disturbing the peace.