Laura Emanuel’s L.A.

Our L.A. series

I met Laura Emanuel in a mastermind group years ago. She’s got this ethereal, easy beauty and groundedness about her. A bohemian self taught techie, actress, entrepreneur, artist, children’s book writer, and mom. You can’t help but feel more grounded just being near her. Laura grew up on the east coast, studied at Carnegie Mellon and the Moscow Art Theatre School before moving to New York City. Post 911 she moved to Los Angeles and has been ever since.

Venice is a gritty, edgy coastal area, full of art, beach vibes and a bit of despair. It’s a very interesting place. It was founded by developer Abbot Kinney in 1905 as an independent sea side city dubbed “The Venice of America.” In 1926 it was annexed by the city of Los Angeles, but it soon fell into disrepair due to neglect. In the 50’s it became a place of counterculture with artists, poets, and The Beat Generation writers. It still has this artsy feel. Although more recently it became a tech hub, “Silicon Beach” and the birthplace of Snap Chat.

We walked from her house minutes from the beach and immediately you’re greeted with walls painted with street art everywhere you look. We find a coffee shop close to her home and she laughs, “I’ve never seen this before!” She texted me later that, “I love that we found a coffee shop two blocks away from me that I had never been to because of my typical patterns of where and when I walk. It’s so fun to be reminded that small changes can create discoveries!”

She had me stand in front of a colorful art wall and asked if she could take a short video of me talking about motherhood. Laura created Mothership rising, “a safe space to support mamas in all the ways a child comes into a mother’s life: adoption, birth, bonus moms, foster care, step-parent, and surrogacy. Mothership Rising is an app that provides support and encouragement to mamas by having their friends and family create a nurturing circle and sign up for days to check in on them via text.” I wish I had this app when I was a new mom. Motherhood can be incredibly isolating and this is the antidote.

We continued onto the Venice boardwalk full of cheesy souvenir shops and cafes. The people, a mix of art peddlers, resident locas, skaters, surfers, homeless and tourists. 

We stopped at the Skate park for a bit to watch people ages 10 to probably in their 50’s I saw doing their thing. Definitely a skill I will never have.

We walked by the famed muscle beach and the newer pickle ball courts.

Laura has an interesting take on A.I. I’m very against generative A.I. I want artists to create art, not a computer that steals from other artists. She has opened my mind a bit to how AI can help as opposed to destruct. How A.I. might be actually pushing people to do more things outside of social media, make things on their own. There is much A.I. on social media. It might be pushing people away and finding the novel concept of real connection. I don’t have that optimism when it comes to A.I. But here's hoping. She’s teaching herself how to use Claude to create the next enhancement to her already incredible app Mothership rising.

I asked her later to expand more on how she thinks A.I. is helping people connect and be more creative outside social media. She said, “I think that people are starting to realize that the fights they might be getting into with people online are with bots, or at least they are concerned about that, and they're starting to see that the content is, you know, AI generated. So I think people are just not naturally as interested in the content because it doesn't have that human element. Part of what made social media so compelling is that you were getting human interaction. And now that that is gone, people are not getting, frankly, the same dopamine rush from it. They're kind of like, why bother if I don't even know that this is a real person? Why am I having a conversation with them? And so I think the draw to social media is becoming less and less, and the draw to being in person with people is becoming greater and greater. And also that draw that we talked about, that idea of having and seeing things that are tangible. So much of this social media time, this time with technology, everything was in the cloud. And now people are really wanting things that they can touch and feel with their hands.”

And then the Canals! “In 1904, Abbot Kinney began to build Venice in America, a few square miles of canals, bridges, and private homes that would be a showcase for American ingenuity—and a reference to Venezia, the great Italian Renaissance city.” In the 1920’s and 30’s with America becoming a car culture the canals were sadly paved over. But in the early 1990’s the canals were restored. What a lovely place.

We headed out of the canal district and stopped at an incredible vintage store (that was way out of my price range) to Abbot Kinney Boulevard. It’s a hip and trendy with cute shops and restaurants. We grabbed a functional smoothie, mine a Miami Glow and hers a Trust your Gut, (super healthy and balanced because of course it is!) from Joe & the Juice

From here Laura suggested we jump in a Waymo! We both have never been in one before. “Okay let’s do it.”  Our Waymo well behaved and didn’t block traffic.

Our last stop was The Mosaic Tile House. A house in the middle of a regular neighborhood that is open for tours for three hours on Saturdays. It is a sight. It’s completely covered in tiles. The artists who created it still live there. You can also see the artists' studios inside. What a project. They live inside their art. Pretty amazing. We bought coasters as souvenirs.

Part of what I’m loving about these adventures outside spending one on one time with friends and seeing parts of L.A. I haven’t deeply explored is that most of the time it’s also allowing my friend to see things they wouldn’t have normally either. Or looking at it with new eyes. It’s nice.

And something else, these excursions are making me love it here more and not want to leave to be honest. Doesn’t mean I will stay forever, but I’m truly appreciating and seeing the beauty and leaving judgments and memories I’ve had over the years behind.

Laura, how long have you lived in Los Angeles?

You know, I never remember this, but I think it's 19 years.

Did you ever live somewhere else, and if so why did you come here?

Yes, I lived in New York for like 9 years and I came to visit my friends from grad school during one of my friends' weddings. Shout out to Seamus and Julie. And while I was there, I told people that I would move out here. So I felt like I had to do it. But also, I love New York so much, but in New York I really felt connected to that struggling artist side of me, and I just was curious if life could be a little simpler and easier than what I was feeling in New York City.

What do you love about L.A.?

What I love about LA is that it is the ultimate choose your own adventure city. There are so many different possible neighborhoods to live in, lives to lead, different sides of yourself to explore, and you can always find different communities to support you in whatever you want to create.

What do you think is a misconception about L.A.?

The biggest misconception about LA to me is that there isn't community here and that it's basically kind of urban sprawl. But actually, it's all these wonderful different neighborhoods in LA.

How would you encapsulate your L.A. experience in just a couple sentences?

My LA experience has been about integrating all the different parts of me, the creative parts, the acting and the technology, the spirituality, the community, the parenting, the friendships, parts of me that needed and still need to be healed.