About

Back in September 2005, I launched Baggagereclaim as a tongue-in-cheek guide created to discuss the complexities of being a woman, the choices that they make and the dodgy men that add to their load. Bored of reading headlines like ‘X ways to seduce your man’ and stuff about trapping/catching men that aren’t looking to be caught, I wanted to bring something different to the table.

Every day, I help thousands of people identify problems, articulate them, and put them in charge of taking action to solve them.

I write about a lot of the complex issues that affect modern relationships in a no holds barred way. I’m firm and real, but I’m also that friend that will tell you the truth. I write the advice that I wish I’d had when I had low self-esteem and a penchant for dating the same guy in a different package. The blog is predominantly aimed at women but I do have a lot of male readers too and my advice is relevant to everyone who has found themselves in a cycle of pain and a bad relationship pattern.

Modern relationships are tricky, with many people unknowingly engaging in and doing counterproductive things and stuff like text messaging, instant messenger, emails, and online dating have completely screwed with people’s expectations of what constitutes ‘normal’ and ‘decent’.

Baggage Reclaim is a shared journey in understanding what you can do to have better relationships and a better sense of self. I empower people to put boundaries in their lives, opt out of painful situations that detract from them, and to have better relationships. Nearly 140K readers a month from around the world read my posts and thousands have read my ebooks Mr Unavailable and the Fallback Girl and The No Contact Rule.

If you want to get in touch, use the contact page.

More about me, Natalie/NML

I’ve been blogging since June 2004 when I started sharing my thoughts on being ‘tired of men‘. An ad exec at the time, I was also in love (or so I thought) with a guy who had a girlfriend. My dating woes, antics with my crackerjack family, and the exploration of what the hell was going on in my head fast gathered a following. When I broke up with a guy from a five month barely there relationship and declared myself into Mr Unavailable’s, it opened up the floodgates. Since then, I’ve received thousands of emails from women (and men) around the world.

I started this blog as a late twenty-something with poor taste in men and relationships. I thought I was having a run of bad luck and the issue was ‘them’ and it was, but it was also me. At the time I was struggling with a debilitating disease and a poor prognosis, but as I started to take care of myself, build my self-esteem, and inject boundaries into my life, my life and health changed dramatically for the better and there are thousands of people who became part of my journey, which is still ongoing. The next phase in my life saw me (unexpectedly) meet the boyf, followed by a baby, followed by another one and we live in leafy Surrey in the UK. Since early 2008, I gave up my job to write full time.

I appear regularly on Sky News, speak on BBC Radio periodically (normally to give my advice on being the other woman!), have been in Red Magazine (UK), and some national newspapers. I’ve was the guest blogger at Haymarket’s PR & The Media 2010 Conference, and have also contributed to various blogs including Bitchbuzz, Ask Dan & Jennifer, and Dollymix.

When I have a spare moment, I love to read (I don’t get far before I fall asleep), sew, shop, and plan our overdue holidays. Aside from writing Baggage Reclaim, I’m also the founder of Bambino Goodies and Nest Goodies, two blogs where I coolhunt cool stuff for under 4′s and their discerning parents and for the home, plus I’m the co-founder of SelfEmployedMum where we provide bitesized hacks to help mum’s avoid spontaneous combustion.