Uptown women can turn anything into a business opportunity — even their kids leaving the house.
asserted
kids → turn → house
When former Vogue exec Donna Korren, 61, watched her youngest daughter fly the coop for college, she realized it was a “perfect storm” of heartbreak and opportunity.
asserted
it → watch → heartbreak
The moment wealthy moms finally regain their house and time, and suddenly ask, “Now what?”
For Korren, who now works in luxury brand strategy, the answer was simple: Start a social network for lonely mothers who successfully launched their kids into elite colleges but forgot, at least for a while, to launch themselves.
asserted
who → regain → themselves
She calls her business “Empty Quester.”
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She → call → business
“I’ve always disliked the phrase ‘empty nester’ because it rings of lack,” Korren, who lives on the Upper East Side, told The Post.
asserted
who → dislike → Post
“It describes the end of a period in a parent’s life with nothing more than vacancy.”
asserted
It → describe → vacancy
To fill the void, she charges the club’s paid members a relatively low fee of $240 a year — less than the cost of a night out in her tony neighborhood — to organize two online group chats a month and occasional in-person ladies’ nights.
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she → fill → person
Nearly 33% of American adults under 35 still live with their parents, according to a 2025 survey.
uncertain
% → live → survey
But that means 66% of grown kids have left the nest — leaving moms especially vulnerable to feeling lonely and even somewhat useless.
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% → mean → moms
After selling her family home in Connecticut and moving back to her home city of Manhattan in 2022, she joined Empty Quester last year.
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she → sell → Quester
She told The Post, “I realized my only friends in the city were Pedro and Hiram” — the doormen in her Upper East Side co-op.
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friends → tell → op
“Initially, the most surprising thing was how quiet our home was,” Mitrano, who sold her Connecticut home after her daughters left for college, said.
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daughters → sell → college
“I kept expecting the front door to swing open to see my daughters and their friends coming and going.
asserted
daughters → keep → ?
And while she loved the perks of sudden solitude — “It’s really nice not hearing the question, ‘What’s for dinner?’” — she realized they came with a new need to rebuild her social life, and redefine who she was beyond motherhood.
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she → love → motherhood
Mitrano tried stitch nights, oil painting, meditation and silk painting classes, but often found herself surrounded by people decades younger.
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herself → try → people
“The company was great, but by the time you’re 50, there’s a comfortable shorthand that comes with hanging out with people your own age,” she said.
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she → ’re → people
“I had a running joke with my husband that women in their 50s just don’t live in Manhattan.”
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women → have → Manhattan
Ironically, it was Gen Z’s modern clubhouse, TikTok, that helped Mitrano discover Empty Quester.
asserted
Mitrano → help → Quester
Normally, Mitrano joked, she would have taken a “hard pass” on meeting up with a random group of strangers.
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she → joke → strangers
But knowing how rare it was to find like-minded women her own age, she took a leap of faith in her well-worn Manolos.
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she → know → Manolos
“I was pleasantly surprised to meet interesting women at a similar life intersection to mine,” she told The Post.
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she → surprise → Post
“You can never underestimate the power of girlfriends.”
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You → underestimate → girlfriends
Beyond the in-person gatherings, Korren says Empty Quester members also get access to two virtual, expert-led Zoom meetups each month, plus Substack chats with fellow “questers.”
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members → say → questers
At one recent beauty event, members mingled, laughed and tried free skincare products — all carefully chosen by Korren in her growing role as a mid-life brand whisperer.
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members → mingle → whisperer
Other gatherings have included drinks, meals and even panel discussions about life beyond daily parenting.
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gatherings → include → parenting
Some moms are even getting a jump on empty nester status while their kids are still at home.
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kids → get → home
Mahwish Syed, 53, has a teen son still living at home.
asserted
Syed → have → home
But the self-proclaimed “design goddess,” who runs an interior decorating firm in the East Village, told The Post she was “thirsty for that human connection and that level of sisterhood.”
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she → proclaim → sisterhood
As someone who “can’t wait for the next chapter” — when her child is successfully launched on a college campus — Syed was thrilled to find a built-in group of women who are already facing the post-teen parenting years.
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who → wait → years
“At this stage of life, you identify as a mom, but you’re so much more than that,” Syed said.
asserted
Syed → identify → that
“How do you actualize those parts of yourself that may have been put on hold?”
uncertain
that → actualize → hold
NYC-based psychotherapist Jordan Conrad says that struggle can be part of a much bigger identity shift.
asserted
struggle → base → shift
“Becoming an empty nester is a bigger identity shift than many people expect,” Conrad told The Post.
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Conrad → become → Post
Once the day-to-day structure of being a mother disappears, women can suddenly find themselves having to rebuild not only their routines, but their sense of who they are outside of parenthood.
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they → disappear → parenthood
“It can feel that your entire social life was simply a byproduct of your child’s life, and now you need to learn how to be around people again,” she said.
asserted
she → feel → people
“As centuries of people have found out, New York City is the ideal city to reinvent yourself,” he said.
asserted
he → find → yourself
“If you allow yourself to feel excited by those possibilities and expose yourself to novel experiences, it can have a significant effect on your brain.”
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it → allow → brain
The therapist says the city is an ideal place to practice social skills and form connections as an empty nester.
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city → say → nester
On TikTok, her bio now reads “empty nest expert,” and features categories like “college parenting 101” and “over 40 style.”
asserted
bio → read → parenting
Her videos have been viewed almost a million times.
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videos → view → times
…and 5 more, not listed.
The Aporia
