ELEVEN SIX WOMEN | JENNY GREENSTEIN

Photos by Kerry Flynn

Meet Jenny Greenstein the woman behind Your Soul Style: a personal styling service. Style and mindful living have always been areas of focus for Jenny. After working in the corporate fashion industry as a stylist/visual merchandiser for more than a decade combined with study in social work at NYU the seeds were formed for what organically became YSS in 2013. While Jenny works with a wide range of women the Motherhood space has become an area of niche focus as she guides and empowers Mama’s through their complex transitions. Jenny’s voice is one of honesty and authenticity and she speaks out to represent same-sex families, her own personal life journey’s as well as holding space for her audience to feel understood and unjudged. YSS is a styling philosophy that reaches far deeper than just the clothes we wear but is truly about the individual finding their truest selves and letting that shine from the inside out! We captured Jenny at her dreamy, Upstate NY, family home and dove a little deeper into her beautiful story...

We love your brand name “Your Soul Style”. Can you speak in more depth to your philosophy and who you strive to connect with?

Your Soul Style is an integration between style and mindfulness. I’ve always been passionate about fashion but not at the cost of sacrificing authenticity. I believe that style must emerge from the inside out but often find that in our culture we style from the outside in. There’s a lot of variables when it comes to personal style with influences coming from parents, peers, media, trauma, social spaces, etc. And unfortunately, sometimes these influences can hold too much weight. When this happens, we wind up lost and disconnected from our core sense of being (and style). Your Soul Style was birthed from my commitment to honest self-expression, introspection and personal growth work combined with my love of fashion. Living in alignment requires us to find connection between the inner and outer self. It requires us to tap into our soul. And I believe we must explore the deepest layers of ourselves first before we can emerge as our true self stylistically.

How has your personal style evolved with age and with Motherhood and how do you channel this in your Mama clients ?

I’m constantly transforming. We all are. But I’ve learned that if I’m not paying attention to all parts of myself, it’s impossible to live in authentic alignment. This includes personal style. Just like we need to continuously stretch our mental and physical muscles, we should evaluate how we self-express from the inside out. Style to me is a form of self-care. 

From as far as I can remember, I have gone through style phases: early childhood into adolescence, coming out, into young adulthood and now approaching middle-age. And while I have filtered each of these phases into who I am today, it took lots of self reflection to understand what parts were authentically mine and which were overly influenced by the external. I’m not saying that I have it all figured out, and I know it will continue to change, but once I became a Mother - which was 100% the biggest transformation in my life - I have arrived at a place of comfort within my own style realm. It’s taken a lot of work, but I’ve developed tools along the way which I now channel into my mama clients. I consider myself one of them. I am my own client - living and breathing the journey. 

With the pandemic year how did you adapt to work with clients remotely and how much of this virtual way of working is here to stay?

Early on in the pandemic, my wife and I decided that it would serve our family best if one of us stayed working and one of us with the kids. Dina works for a big corporate company so since she has the “steadier” job, it made more sense for me to be the one to pause. We are fortunate that we even had this choice - this much I know. But it still wasn’t an easy decision and I missed my work so much. That said, I optimized the time away and went into creation mode. I started to conceive a rebrand and relaunch for YSS, restructured my entire business model and also completed my core life coach training at Coactive Training Institute. The tools and exercises I learned in training will be integrated into the Your Soul Style methodology.

I also had time to really live the process too. We have all been through so much. Life is different now. The pandemic transformed us. What I discovered in my own journey continues to inform my entire approach.

When I came back to work in March 2021, I had to evolve 1:1 client-facing time to include a more robust remote approach. And so I did. I now offer 2 ongoing remote packages for clients that don’t live in the tri-state area or for clients that are still sensitive to in-person work. It’s been quite successful and is absolutely a workable approach to personal styling.

You and your beautiful family were recently on the cover of New York Family magazine. Can you speak to the significance of featuring a 2-mom family for the first time to the LGBTQ community.

Sometimes I have to remind myself that we are a diverse family because to me, it just feels “normal”. But when I stood back objectively and processed how we were the first same-sex family to be on the cover, I felt incredibly proud. I really want to use my platform to show up for my community. To be honest, I don’t think I do that enough. But if I can help one person in this world feel seen, that’s enough for me.

We love your honest and authentic voice when speaking about your two-mom family. The conversations all parents need to have with our children about what different kinds of families look like needs to be ongoing (and not just for Pride month)! How do you navigate talking to your daughters?

Our approach to parenting has been to teach them about inclusivity from the jump. This includes all diverse family dynamics and a baseline of knowing that we all come in different shapes and sizes. Some kids have 2 moms, 2 dads, 1 parent, grandparents raising them, adoption, mixed race parents, etc.etc. We have stocked our library at home with books that range in all social differences. We are committed to exposing Vida (6), and Bloom (2) to the beautiful differences that span race, religion, gender, sexual preference, etc. That is the ongoing narrative in our home. That said, Vida also knows (Bloom is too young) we are a LGBTQ+ family and that while we live in a progressive, inclusive city (NYC), there’s still plenty of people that don’t agree with our lifestyle. She’s aware she’s a minority. But to her it doesn’t matter. She’s proud and empowered because we are. And we are giving her the tools to navigate the world at large when she comes up to resistance to that.

Can you share what exciting things you have in the pipeline for Your Soul Style and how you like your brand to evolve?

I’m super excited for what’s to come for YSS. I’ve been working on a rebrand/relaunch which is coming this Fall with a very specific approach and methodology. Much of the tools I’ve learned in my life coach training will be integrated. My services will also be offered in bundles because I’ve created a very specific step-by-step process to yield the most positive results. I hope to train/hire a team so the YSS method can become accessible to more women. And my overarching goal is to reach as many people as possible with this message: Authentic style emerges when your entire being is in alignment. It takes work to transform, but if I can be an agent of change in this area, I’m here for it.

It’s been a beyond challenging year and a half for working parents especially during Covid – how have you found peace during this time?

I hope this doesn’t sound too cliche, but gratitude has kept me sane. I have felt so challenged at times with fear, uncertainty, overwhelm, anxiety - I mean the list goes on. But I always come back to gratitude. I am so fortunate to have the life that I do. To have my health, my friends, family, my wife, my children. To be breathing this air, to be alive. Life is so fragile as we all now know. Nothing can be taken for granted. 

Where are you dreaming to travel with the family first post pandemic? 

We have a trip planned to LA in a couple of weeks. I’m very much looking forward to it. But, beyond that: I’m manifesting a trip to the beach this Winter (think: Costa Rica or Mexico) and Marrakech next Summer. 

How would you describe the ELEVEN SIX brand to your friends and which pieces from the ELEVEN SIX collections are your most enjoying?

Oh my, I love Eleven Six so much. Catherine has so much integrity behind this brand and I know that it’s a labor of love. Each piece is so carefully crafted and beautiful. She has real intention and the collections are cohesive and elevated. Her commitment to ethical and sustainable fashion practices is deeply respected by me. We all need to be doing better here. Every time I visit the website, I want to buy everything. But my favorite pieces are the Isla Cardi (so versatile), the Karla tank (I’m a sucker for a one-shoulder anything), and the Tess sweater because I need cozy and chic living in NYC. I’m just about to push “buy” on the Madras throw for my home in the Hudson Valley.