The Winners! The 2022 Childfree Person & Group of the Year!

Happy International Childfree Day!

To celebrate this Day, the winners of the Childfree Person of the Year and Childfree Group of the Year are announced! First, the Selection Panel gives a big thanks to all who nominated such great nominees. Each year amazing childfree people are nominated, and this year is no exception!

Here are the 2022 childfree winners and their nomination submissions:

2022 Childfree Person of the Year: Bettina Zourli

Nomination I: Self-nomination

My name is Bettina Zourli, and I am a 30-year-old French childfree woman living in Belgium. I own and run the Instagram account @jeneveuxpasdenfant (which means I don’t want kids in French), followed by over 39,000 people. I started this account thanks to the publication of my first essay, Childfree, je ne veux pas d’enfant, a book speaking about all the arguments and negative things childfree people do hear. 

Since 2019, I have been sharing stories of childfree French-speaking people, and trying through my own page, podcasts and interviews (you can find the references on my blog) to normalize the idea that not every woman wants kids and that there’s nothing wrong about being childfree. I also speak a lot about feminisme, politics, ecology (I have a Master’s degree in Gender Studies, so I try to share my knowledge as well). I also share contacts of doctors for permanent contraception in France, as even if this is legal in our country, most doctors refuse or even lie to women (and men who’d like a vasectomy), which makes it quite difficult. I am planning on sterilization for myself in 2023. On my social media, I also share my life, things about my couple (I am married) and my daily life. My childfree work is to create a bridge between the French and English-speaking childfree communities.

Nomination II by Auroreg

What about your nominee makes the person an ideal candidate for the Childfree Person of the Year award? She’s one of the first to publish childfree content in French. She has also published feminism content.

How does the person show what an amazing childfree life can look like? She shows how it can be fullfiling to not have children!

How has the nominee helped the acceptance of the childfree choice? She ”normalises” it – it’s as valid as to want to have children. There is not a good amount of French childfree content so it’s important for people that are (only) francophone!

Find her: YouTube, jeneveuxpasdenfant on Instagram, Facebook facebook.com/jeneveuxpasdenfant  

2022 Childfree Group of the Year: The Childfree Connection

The Childfree Connection received four nominations! Here they are:

Nomination 1 by Maria Francesca Repucci

I’m delighted to recommend Veronica and Rick for their continued work within the childfree community here in Austin, Texas through their content creation at The Childfree Connection.

I feel their routine output of high-quality content via YouTube and Instagram is tremendously important, particularly here in Austin, Texas. Texas is a considerably conservative state that applies much pressure on young women to build families and maintain the exemplary stereotype of traditional femininity. While Austin may be a bit offbeat politically from the rest of the state, the pressure to conform to that lifestyle choice is nevertheless felt here in the city.

Additionally, there is a noted influx of young professionals including in particular young women who are within their fertility years moving to the city within the past handful of years. There is significant spoken and unspoken pressure in this conservative region of the country for young woman of a certain age to marry and have children. It remains a status symbol to which young women are particularly sensitive, when most friends are newly married or expecting their first child. Veronica and Rick’s work to normalize the choice to remain childfree has been very impactful within our community and needed precisely because of this unfortunate collision of those two noteworthy factors. I know their impact has been profound at a much larger scale as well, but of course I’m speaking from my own perspective being a young woman of fertility years living in Austin, Texas. I’m very appreciative of their work and think that they are quite deserving of this award!

Nomination 2 by Caryn Leigh Posnansky

I’m nominating The Childfree Connection because they’re about community. They are here to help people who didn’t realize there’s a place to go for this kind of help. So many people are made to feel “less than” because of their choice to remain childfree and The Childfree Connection is there to make you feel whole again. Whether you’re childfree by choice forever or by circumstance whenever, they are there for you.

They don’t just use their opinions (which happen to be pretty great), they dig in and do their research, give the stats and the real facts.

My favorite part of The Childfree Connection: it’s not about bashing/hating kids or people with kids (who, in my opinion, deserve to be bashed at times), it’s just about living YOUR life, the life YOU choose, even if it’s withOUT children of your own!!!

Nomination 3 by Kristen Nolan  

I am excited to submit my nominee for the Childfree Group of the Year award, Veronica and Rick from The Childfree Connection. I believe they are the ideal candidates for this award because they are in complete alignment and integrity with the childfree lifestyle and have chosen to be vulnerable and share this with the world! They’re the real deal and helping so many young couples understand best practices for making the decision to be childfree should this be the best choice for them. 

What’s exemplary about this group’s accomplishments are that I have watched their childfree community go from zero to over 15,000 Instagram and YouTube followers in under a year! The amount of engagement and love they get from their community is off the charts and they’ve literally helped couples from all over the world to ask the tough questions and figure out if this lifestyle is a good fit for them. They help young couples know it’s okay to be different and not go with the normal family lifestyle. They’ve even created a program which guides women through this decision-making process step by step so they are confident and secure in their why. 

The group’s purpose has helped the acceptance of a childfree choice by going through common misconceptions one by one and debunking common myths about being childfree. Making these public and creating content that entertains is the best way for people to learn, grow and accept this lifestyle choice rather than shun it. Rick and Veronica are always making their community laugh and learn best ways to communicate their choice to family and friends which gives them confidence and makes them feel like they are part of a group that truly understands where they are coming from. They truly live up to the name Childfree Connection by opening up their journey and helping all who are on the path to being childfree feel acceptance and love no matter what they decide. 

Nomination 4 by TJ Jackson

Why is your nominee group an ideal candidate for the Childfree Group of the Year award?

The information provided by Veronica & Rick absolutely surpasses anything I could’ve expected. There are so many layers to the decision of becoming childfree that I’ve never been exposed to. They’ve been doing this for so long, it was easy to receive information and opinions that went deeper than the superficial reasons to consider childfree living.

What is exemplary about the group’s goals and accomplishments?

Veronica & Rick create a genuinely judgement free space and that is part of what makes them unique. With their caring nature they always offer advice/help, and I never felt like I had to hold back on my honest opinion on any end of the spectrum. Their goal is to help you feel secure in your decision of kids or no kids, always opening you to new perspectives without pushing.

How has the group’s purpose or goals helped the acceptance of childfree choice?

Before I found this amazing couple on social media, I felt like I had no outside perspectives to help my deciding process. Since finding them, I can confidently say that I want to be childfree and even feel prepared to defend my choice to anyone that questions it. I knew what I wanted but didn’t have the knowledge to back up my choice. Since being in communication with them, the concern of ‘what path am I moving towards’ has taken a backseat because they gave me confidence. Truly I was meant to come across them, and I don’t feel like I’m alone with any of my thoughts around being childfree.

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Many thanks to all of the fantastic nominees, those who nominated them, and all who have been part of and celebrated International Childfree Day since 2013, an annual recognition of wonderful childfree people and their lives!