My Subscription Life: Jeanne

My Subscription Life is a series designed to help you get to know the MSA team a little bit better. Each profile introduces a different member of the team, showcases their favorite subscriptions, and explores how subscriptions impact their lives. 

Today, we're going to meet Jeanne, who has been a part of the My Subscription Addiction team since spring of 2021. Jeanne is a writer and photographer from upstate New York, where she lives with her family and pets. She's tested pet and personal care products in her recent reviews, and she's currently working her way through a series of gift guides for astrological signs, which I think is a lot of fun. Regardless of what she's penning, she's sure to bring her unique brand of wit to each and every piece. Read on to learn more about Jeanne's subscription life!

My Subscription Life: Jeanne

Lindsey: Hi, Jeanne! Can you start by sharing a little bit about yourself?

Jeanne: I've been obsessed with photography since I got a Fisher-Price camera at age six, and I own a small photography business shooting weddings and portraits. I am most drawn to photographing people and trying to tell their stories with my work. I was a newspaper journalist for many years at a small paper where the reporters also took their own photographs, so documentary photography is a huge part of what I do.

L: What does your average Saturday look like? 

J: Saturdays for me often involve a photography session, but if I'm not shooting, I'm probably hanging out with my husband and our teenage daughter. We like to watch movies together or play board games — we just started the Escape the Crate subscription and are having a lot of fun solving the puzzles together!

L: Can you describe a memorable vacation?

J: I think my most memorable vacation was a trip to North Carolina last year because we drove through the town where my husband grew up and we lived as a couple on the way down. We showed our daughter the spot where we got married, our first apartment, and some other important spots from our lives pre-kid. Then we carried on to North Carolina, where we met up with my husband's childhood best friend and his wife. My husband is pretty quiet, but being around his best friend he opened up, and it was so special to see him with someone else who really just GETS him and appreciates him the way our daughter and I do.

L: When and how did you first discover subscription boxes?

J: I think I started off with my Quip subscription. I'd picked up the toothbrush at Target because I'd gotten so tired of my old toothbrush that had a ton of problems... among them that finding the replacement heads was such a pain in the neck! I loved the idea of getting the replacements RIGHT in my mailbox.

L: What are your current subscriptions?

J: In addition to my Quip, I get BarkBox for my corgi, Function of Beauty for my teenage daughter, and we get ButcherBox for my husband/daughter (they eat meat; I don't). I have also signed up for CatLadyBox and Billie after writing about them. On a digital level, I have Netflix and Amazon Prime. I was getting Misfits Market, but turned it off for the summer because produce would just go bad too quickly because of the heat. I'm debating starting it back up again, however!

L: Which is your favorite subscription?

J: BarkBox is hands-down my favorite. The boxes are just so well-planned, and the marketing copy is truly funny. There's a joke about how dogs feel about vacuums that I found on the back of a treats bag that I've repeated to several people because it's really THAT funny. But really best of all is my dog loves the toys — she just hit a year old, and she's very much in that play stage. I love that she likes to play with them, and it gets our older dog up and playing with her too.

L: If you could only subscribe to one box or service, which would it be?

J: This is really tough because I suppose one day my dog will grow out of BarkBox (sniff, sniff). If I can go the digital route, I'd say Netflix because it's something literally everyone in my family uses.

L: Describe your perfect subscription. 

J: I'm a photographer, and I would LOVE to get a photographer's box that let me find new cool things for photographers, but alas this has yet to happen.

L: Do you have a favorite subscription category? 

J: This is hard because I think what I love most are the subscriptions that just plain make my life easier — like not having to go to store to replace my razor or my toothbrush. Is that a category?

L: Absolutely! Personal care subscriptions are hugely convenient! What are your primary reasons for subscribing?

J: I'm 100% about making my life easier with subscriptions, and often that comes down to reducing my need to go to an actual store. In addition to being a writer, I have my own photography business, and I'm a mom of a busy teenager, so I often just do not have TIME. Getting our meat delivered so we can just pop it in the freezer or even my dog's toys delivered saves me that time but gives me the relief knowing it's still getting done.

L: Which subscription item(s) that you’ve received in the past is the most memorable? Why did it make such an impact on you?

J: BarkBox had a Space Jam themed box a while back, and we got a mini Lebron James toy in it. For some reason this just really made my husband laugh... and he took it on vacation with us to show to a friend. So mini Lebron James somehow showed up in some of our vacation photos. I'm not sure he ever actually relinquished it to the actual dog!

L: If someone offered you the opportunity to curate your own subscription box, what would you send out to your subscribers?

J: I would definitely build a photography box of cool gadgets, photographer t-shirts, and that kind of thing!

Thanks so much, Jeanne! 

Questions for Jeanne? Jump into the comments section below!