ABOUT THE
®
Sisters Amy and Nancy Harrington, the Passionistas, at Radio City Music Hall on Oprah's Lifeclass Tour.
We’re the Passionistas, Amy & Nancy Harrington, sisters who grew up with three older siblings who were all pop culture addicts just like us. We were surrounded by creativity — art, books, music, games, cooking, theater, dancing and television.
But even though our dad had a successful business career, he never got over the fact that he didn’t pursue his dream of being a cartoonist. Had our mom been born in a different time, she would have been the female Indiana Jones, traveling the world on her next archeological adventure. They chose traditional paths for the sake of the stability of our family but they always encouraged us to take the risks that they didn’t take.
And so we both pursued careers in the entertainment industry. Amy quickly rose up the ranks to become Vice President of Post Production and Visual Effects at Warner Bros. working on blockbuster movies like the Batman, Matrix and Harry Potter
franchises. Nancy founded her own graphic design firm and had a successful theater company in Boston before joining Amy in Hollywood and working on Academy Award ad campaigns for Miramax.
We had dream jobs. We were honing our creative skills at the highest levels. We were following our passion for pop culture. But even though we had achieved success, the spark had gone out. So we decided that it was time to find a new adventure — together. But in doing so, we needed to look at what success meant to us outside of the traditional Hollywood power structure and redefine it for ourselves.
The way we had always looked at success was changing. The careers we had pursued straight out of college were no longer the ones that fueled our passion. This traditional version of success wasn’t fulfilling.
So we walked away from it all and found ourselves on a winding path of self-discovery that led us to the world of celebrity interviewing. Helping people tell their stories became our new passion. Together, they have conducted and produced over 1500 celebrity interviews for their own website, The Interviews for the Television Academy Foundation and The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame + Museum.
In 2016, we found ourselves once again examining the meaning of success. We loved interviewing Hollywood royalty, but the world was changing. The #MeToo and Times Up movements were in full swing. We were in awe of the brave women who were stepping forward to share their very personal stories.
We knew that we needed to do something to help lift up these women, too. Now we shine a light on the positive stories of self-identified women and non-binary people through The Passionistas Project® with our podcast, Power of Passionistas® women’s equality summit and online sisterhood. We inspire women to embrace their authenticity, pursue their passions and support one another along the way. We believe that by creating a space where women can connect, tell their own unfiltered stories and empower each other, they can transform their lives and change the world.