Elissa Olinsky
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elissaolinsky.bsky.social
Elissa Olinsky
@elissaolinsky.bsky.social
1.1K followers 1K following 54 posts
Human-centered everything. Doing product at @factal.com, singing on Capitol Hill, mom-ing always and everywhere, fixing signs in your museum. Pay your interns! (she/they) frankleolinsky.com
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elissaolinsky.bsky.social
I will never forget standing in @eastcitybooks.bsky.social leafing through Andrea Gibson’s Take Me With You, getting it wrapped around my heart, and weeping quietly in the shelves. Thank you for sharing your heart and words with us; we will miss you forever.
A hand holds a small book open, showing the right hand page with these words in a handwriting-style block font: Let me say right now for the record: I’m still gonna be here asking this world to dance. Even if it keeps stepping in my holy feet. You, you stay here with me, okay? You stay here with me. Raising your bite against the bitter dark, your bright longing, your brilliant fist of loss. Friend, if the only thing we have to gain in staying is each other, my god that is plenty. My god that is enough. My god that is so, so much for the light to give. Each of us at each other’s backs whispering over and over and over. “Live. Live. Live.”
July 15, 2025 at 12:56 AM
elissaolinsky.bsky.social
Basically the best-timed arrival of a kickstarter reward. (Thanks @theawkwardyeti.bsky.social!)
A book with a stylized heart pulling at its eyes with a screaming mouth saying “Quiet, Brain!” Subtitle is Heartfelt Activities for Mental and Emotional Progress by Nick Seluk. Around the book are a bookmark with a cartoon smiling flower in a green field in front of a cartoon brain, on whose top a content-looking cartoon heart balances; a red pencil that says “you’re doing great!” in white letters; and a pair of white post-it note pads, one showing a studious cartoon brain and titled “adult responsibilities”, the other showing a leaping cartoon heart and titled “utter nonsense”.
November 15, 2024 at 3:45 PM
elissaolinsky.bsky.social
They tried to bury us. They didn’t realize we were pothos, who, when buried, just grow new roots and shoots and emerge lush, beautiful, and triumphant.

This little tiny shoot came from what had been a long, bare vine. Grow, little buddy; grow, us. 💙
A pothos on a windowsill in a painted pot. In the foreground is a large vine covered in green leaves, but on the left of the pot, barely visible and circled in yellow, is a tiny shoot emerging from the soil and reaching for the sky.
November 12, 2024 at 8:32 PM
elissaolinsky.bsky.social
Proud papa and his smol princess hanging out at the White House yesterday (like you do).
Husband Ben in a blue suit smiles warmly at the camera. Behind him, the hall of the White House is decorated with oversized candies and the columns are wrapped in festive red, mint, pink, and white ribbons. In the center is Maya, an almost-four-year-old, in a dark blue dress with sparkles, cream tights, and Mary Janes. Her back is turned to us as she walks confidently down the hall. Ben in a dark blue suit kneels next to Maya in a dark blue dress with sparkles. Their backs are turned to us as they look at the White House Christmas tree in the Blue Room, surrounded by miniature pastel houses in a winter scene.
December 5, 2023 at 4:39 PM
elissaolinsky.bsky.social
Day in the life of a museum educator-turned-researcher-turned-product director: adapting one of my favorite improv games as an incident response tabletop.
Movie poster-style graphic featuring the three faces from the standoff scene of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, but the last face has googly eyes over it. Text reads “The good, the bad, and the googly”
November 20, 2023 at 10:01 PM