Every morning I walk into my studio with coffee in hand and start deleting emails.
Apparently, the Internet is very concerned about me.
My hormones.
My gut health.
My retirement.
And, because my name is Joey...
How to grow my penis three inches by Friday.
I was just about to delete the next email.
And for reasons I can't explain...I didn't.
Good thing.
It was from Curious Mondo, a name I hadn't thought about in quite a while.
And just like that, I was ten years younger.
Sadly, only in my head.
When I was about 52, Shahar from Curious Mondo reached out and asked if she could interview me about my art, Dolly Mamas and licensing.
FYI…Curious Mondo is an online learning site where artists and makers teach all kinds of creative classes.
I said yes.
Then the day of the interview, I couldn't get the Bluetooth to work in my studio.
Of course I couldn't.
Technology can smell fear.
So I had to move the whole interview into my then-fiancé's office.
The man I eventually called Toxic Dump in my book.
Which explains why the background looks like a man cave.
I may have questionable taste in men, but I draw the line at decorating with HVAC manuals and motorcycle memorabilia.
Anyhoo….I watched that interview again the other day.
There I was.
My younger version.
I should have been listening to all the fascinating things I had to say about art and licensing.
I wasn't.
I was too busy staring at my younger self.
Admiring how my skin was still attached to my body.
Part two of this story...
Years later, Curious Mondo contacted me again and asked if I'd like to teach an online class based on the pillows I'd created for an Art Doll Quarterly feature.
I said yes.
Then I remembered something.
I had absolutely no idea how to film myself.
No equipment.
No camera setup.
No clue.
And because it was COVID, I couldn't fly to their studio. They told me to record the whole class myself, send it to them and they'd edit it.
Sure.
Easy.
I think I sent them eight hours of my cleavage.
I was trying to show people how to make a Dolly Mama.
Apparently, my boobs wanted to teach the class.
When Curious Mondo sent me the finished version, did I notice how beautifully they'd edited it?
No.
Did I notice that I'd actually pulled off teaching an entire online class?
No.
I noticed that I hadn't colored my hair in over two months.
Priorities.
But people really liked the class. I got wonderful reviews, and somewhere along the way someone called me the...
“Joan Rivers of art classes.”
I'll take it.
Now you are officially caught up.
Okay...back to that email.
I open it.
I scroll down.
And there I am.
INSTRUCTOR HIGHLIGHT: JOEY HEIBERG
I didn't know they were doing it.
Nobody told me.
I almost deleted myself.
Naturally, I started reading.
They talked about the cloth dolls.
The greeting cards.
The licensing.
The products.
The 25+ years of Dolly Mamas.
All these different things I've done that somehow turned into a career.
And then I got to three words.
“She kept her voice.”
Huh.
That one got me.
Because through all the products...
The licensing deals.
The books.
The art.
The mistakes.
The things that worked.
The things that REALLY didn't work.
The hair colors.
The men.
The cleavage…
Somehow...
I still sound like me.
Maybe a little louder.
Definitely a little wrinklier.
But still me.
I've spent a lot of my life thinking I was supposed to figure out what came next.
What's the next idea?
The next product?
The next chapter?
What am I going to be when I grow up?
Funny how sometimes it takes someone else describing you to remind you who you've been all along.
Maybe we spend way too much time trying to become the person we think we're supposed to be...
when the best parts were there all along.
So thank you, Curious Mondo.
For the interview.
For the class.
For editing out most of my cleavage.
And for putting me in an email I almost deleted.
Because maybe getting older isn't about reinventing yourself after all.
Maybe it's about finally figuring out which parts of yourself were right all along.
❤️ Joey
