15 Stories About Sisterhood from the LBYR Team

This week, beloved former first daughters and bestselling authors Jenna Bush Hager and Barbara Pierce Bush celebrates their new picture book, Sisters First. It’s inspired by sisterhood, whether it’s of blood or friendship, and it inspired all of us to share our own stories with our sisters.

Katharine McAnarney, Publicity Manager

If there’s one thing the McAnarney Girls suck at — it’s taking pictures. For years, my parents have tried to get us all together for first-day-of-school photos, holiday card photos, you name it and we inevitably mess it up. I have ketchup on my shirt, Jenny isn’t looking at the camera, Casey’s eyes are closed. But sometimes we get a photo that captures us just right — if we suck at taking photos, we’re pretty good at making each other laugh.

Deirdre Jones, Senior Editor

The one thing I’ve always shared with my sisters is a love of music. We all took piano lessons growing up, we all love musicals and broadway shows, and we all have the soundtracks to most Disney movies memorized. As kids, we’d fight over who got to take center stage when singing along to the Hercules cassette tape on long family car rides, and we’d put on shows for our parents made up of jingles from commercials and songs from our family’s old Kidsongs VHS tapes. Now that we’re all adults, get us together and it never takes long for someone to break into a song, usually from The Muppet Christmas Carol. And I wouldn’t have it any other way!

Alex Kelleher-Nagorski, Publicity Manager

Gina may not be my sister by blood, but we’ve bonded like identical twins since the first night we met in college back in 2008. In the 11 years since, not a day has gone by that we haven’t spoken. We’ve done everything from living together to coaching one another through bad breakups to going on unforgettable vacations to being the Best Man/Woman at one another’s weddings to pulling ridiculous pranks on one another to referring to one another’s pets as our nieces and nephews, and so much more. Gina is more than just my best friend — she’s a sister who I love unconditionally and the person who shaped who I am today. I am honored to call her my chosen family.

Stefanie Hoffman, Senior Marketing Manager

I am so lucky to have grown up with a big sister. She braided my hair, taught me how to play UNO, made me the BEST mixed tapes (which lets you know how old we are) and gave me ridiculous nicknames that I still have. While there is a somewhat large age gap between us, it seems non-existent now that we’re older. She is one of the strongest, kindest people I know and I look up to her in so many ways. This photo was taken after I convinced her to eat a vomit flavored jellybean, because even though we’re apparently adults now, we’re never growing up. I’m technically taller than her now, but she’s reminding me I’m still the little sister. I love that I can go to her with big problems, and she gives me advice or is just there to let me vent. But even more importantly, I love that when we’re together, we can be our goofiest, little-kid-like selves.

Kelsey Parrotte, Licensing Brand Management Assistant

When you grow up in the military, you learn that family is not about blood. It’s about community and support, and your family becomes those who share the day-to-day, celebrations, and hardships with you and yours. My family gained five people when we met our neighbors in Ft. Lewis, Washington. Lani and Taylor are sisters to me, and together we shared holidays, broken bones, the occasional missing dinner ingredient, and many, many nights playing card games. We may not live across the street from one another anymore, but we continue to go the extra mile (literally and metaphorically) to be in each other’s lives.

Regan Winter, Brand, Licensed, & MTI Editorial Assistant

My sister and I are sixteen years apart. As you can imagine, it was pretty weird to have my high school life shaken up with a newborn in the house. I never expected that Paige and I would be close or that I would have that much of an impact on her, especially since I was heading off to college. But now, almost nine years later, I’ve experienced periods of mimicking how I wear my hair and how I dress, Christmas breaks spent playing Sparkle Kitty, and nights being confronted about why I haven’t texted her back (only five minutes after received said emoji-filled messages). Paige recently told me she had to write a story for school about a fun day she had, and she apparently wrote about one morning when I took her to breakfast and we passed the time waiting for our table by sitting in my mom’s car, chatting about life. It’s been such a privilege to see her grow from a baby that would interrupt my sleep to the coolest kid in the world.

Savannah Kennelly, Digital Marketing Assistant

My sister is nine years younger than me, so I drove her to school almost every day. We went to the same school, which went from Pre-K all the way up to 12th grade. Driving her could sometimes be a pain, especially if she was in a bad mood, and I would have to curb my incessant want to curse in road-rage. I started incorporating “fudge muffins” into my vocabulary. But no matter if we were fighting, or in a bad mood, we always agreed to give each other a kiss goodbye when we had to separate. And while my Scorpio little sister may think I’m a dramatic Leo and want to kick me half the time, and rat me out to my parents occasionally, and make fun of me all the time — I love her so much. She’s one of the funniest, smartest people I know, always ready with a quippy line. And while she might occasionally call me a bOOmEr (I’m triggered) she’s always down for a good time, or there to cheer me up. And besides, I make fun of her too. What are sisters for? Love you, Payton!

Valerie Wong, Digital Marketing Associate

I don’t have a blood sister, but I do have Alexis. Our families met before we were born, so we spent a lot of time together as kids mixing random substances together while at the buffet and then playing “school” with our brothers afterwards (the Asian tiger mom in me runs deep). But even beyond our families’ history, we’re actually really close. We still go shopping together and buy matching outfits that we wear shamelessly in public. We laugh at inside jokes that shouldn’t really be funny after so many years. There was a point in our lives where our friends outside of each other knew we were spending time together when all communication ceased for a few hours. Our dads can’t handle our nonstop giggling whenever we’re around each other, and so many people have actually thought we were sisters…and we are just that.

Shanese Mullins, Editorial Intern

Twins! Bria and then Tia, just like the way they were born. My cousins, 3 years younger than me but we couldn’t more like sisters even if we were actual sisters. They are the people closest to me. The ones I share everything with good news and bad, good like when my diploma came in or bad like when our grandfather died. No matter what it is I can count on them. They are the first people I tell things to. We do everything together, we go everywhere together, Bria riding shotgun in the passenger’s seat giving me directions and literally feeding me when my hands are on the steering wheel. Tia, in the backseat sleeping or making us laugh, like the time we got lost but Tia was sure she knew where we were because and I’m quoting her here “I remember these trees.” FYI, she did not remember those trees and we were lost but it was fun. We can spend hours on the phone not saying a thing or hours in the same room never saying a word to each other. We argue all of the time, but we don’t really mean it. They are the best parts of me, and I couldn’t ask for better sisters.

Jessica Mercado, Graphic Designer

This photo was taken during our first ever vacation together in Seattle, WA. In 2017 my brother and his wife announced that they were pregnant. We decided to take this trip as a way to celebrate our own sisterhood before we transited into our new roles as aunts. It was a fun vacation exploring a new city, a new area in the country, and learning more about one another. Growing up, we had always shared a bedroom and were (and still are) best friends. However, when we each of us went to college and stayed in each respected city, my sister in Philadelphia and myself in New York, we missed seeing each other grow as young adults. This vacation allowed us to learn more about the adult versions of ourselves and how to develop our lifelong friendship together.

Morgan Maple, Publicity Assistant

The older my sister and I’ve gotten, the more we’ve grown together in love and kindness. Although, since we’re so close in age, there were lots of fist fights growing up, too. The Bush Sisters spoke about their favorite family traditions at their New York City event, and it included their family’s beach vacation spot in Maine. It made my heart warm to be reminded of my own family’s cherished place. We’ve been vacationing on a quaint island, Fripp Island, SC, for over 20 years. My mom and dad were married there over 10 years ago, and more recently my sister married her husband there. When my parents tied the knot though, they brought two more older sisters into my life, bringing lots of laughs and tender memories, making us one big, happy, full family. Love you all so much, sisters!

Christina Quintero, Executive Art Director, Licensing/IP

We have the exact same birthday and have been best friends since we were 3 years old. When we were 6, she moved away, but fortunately our families were also close so we made sure to plan visits several times a year. We lived in the same city during college and a brief time in NYC, otherwise, lots of travel across the country with her now living at the beach and me in the city. Our parents refer to each of us as the “their other daughter” and I’m Aunt Chrissie to her 3 wild boys (PS they are the only ones allowed to call me that…Chrissie is a family nickname that I’ve never quite been able to get rid of J).

 

Kelly Brennan, Design Assistant

Katie and I were raised side by side, but could not be anymore different. She’s the loud to my quiet, athletic to my artistic, stubborn to my sensitive, (straight to my gay…) I think too much and get inside my own head and feelings, yet Katie knows what she wants and goes for it with everything in her, never letting self doubt get in the way. She’s a bad ass through and through — she can lift over 300 pounds and still have the discipline to go home and eat all of her vegetables. (I struggle to run a few miles and not gorge on mac n cheese afterward.)

This picture was taken after Katie graduated from the Fire Academy. It was months of grueling work — through EMT certification, written tests, wrestling through crawl spaces, and running into burning buildings, she was one of the two women to graduate in a class of 50. Now, she’s embarking on another career journey that I’m not allowed to share yet, but it’s twice as bad ass and just as worthy of her incredibly strong heart for protecting others. There’s no one else I want to save me from a burning building, because I know between her physical prowess and unconditional love for me, she’ll be there for me every time.

Mary was born too small. She was almost two months premature, and couldn’t breathe at first. She came out perfectly healthy and happy, only with a touch of asthma we both share (ugh) At the time, my parents were terrified. I was too young to really understand what was going on — I only remember being absolutely THRILLED to finally have a little sister. After the surprise that my first little sibling was a stinky boy, the potential to have a little girl just like me was life changing to seven-year-old me.

Mary and I share a few vital traits — of the five of us Brennan kids, we’re the only two with a voracious love for reading. Once I noticed this, I knew we would share a lifetime of book recommendations and reading sessions together. So after I read Harry Potter a few years later, I knew I absolutely had to share it with my little sister.

At the time, Mary was almost too old to still get read aloud to in bed, but she always loved the one on one bonding that came with snuggling in and reading a book together — So I offered to read her Harry Potter. From the first book, she would ask for one more chapter, one more chapter, until she fell asleep. It went on for months as we worked our way through five books, then once we got to six, she couldn’t patiently wait for me to slowly enunciate each word, and she devoured the last books on her own. Since then, she’s reread the series countless times, and our shared collection is lovingly tattered and falling out of the spines.

I am so, so lucky to have a little sister who loves books like I do. Without her, I would have been the odd one out in our big family. But together, we discuss and correctly guess the endings to countless books and tv shows, and we’ll continue to bring magical stories into each other’s lives.

And for good measure — all of us grown up and together, plus Aunt Peggy on the left!

 

Michelle Campbell, School & Library Marketing Manager

Here’s a photo collage of me and older sister, Megan, who is always on my side (left side, that is!)

Andrea Spooner, VP, Editorial Director

When I look through old photos of my sister and me, I see a theme that makes me happy: reading. She, invariably, is reading to me. She was not only four years older, but she was always a more voracious and advanced reader than I was. I remember once mischievously poking my head into the bedroom where she was quietly trying to read undisturbed and calling out, “BOOKWORM!!!” and then tearing off, giggling like I was a little devil who had just delivered a truly terrible insult. As you can see from the pictures, though, she worked patiently to convert me, and eventually succeeded. (Thank you, sister Kristin!)