Book Tour
with Excerpts
Memoir
Date Published: November 4th 2021
Publisher: Acorn Publishing
Clipped is a quirky memoir about a new mother whose desperation to get her baby to sleep catapulted her into becoming an inventor and a small business owner—just before the world fell apart in 2008.
As a full-time mother and entrepreneur, Adrienne Alitowski rolled out her invention, blankyclip®, to retailers across the country, including over thirty stores in the Buy Buy Baby national chain. LA Parent Expecting and Kids Today both made blankyclip a “Top Pick.” The United States Patent and Trademark Office awarded her three utility patents and a trademark. All that fabulous glory aside, Adrienne also learned what it’s like to fly halfway around the world to a Chinese factory and to be pregnant, throwing up on the street just before an investor meeting. These experiences led her down a path to write this memoir about sticking to your vision and being open to finding gold in the muck.
Excerpts
Excerpt #1:
Having a baby at my age—or any age—ends your life as you know it. But Gary and I had been married for seven years, together for eleven, and we wanted children.
It was 2003, and I was thirty-seven. Since my body wasn’t going to be endlessly fertile, it was now or never. I couldn’t imagine it being never. So I became a mother, and my life did change in every way possible. Thirty-seven years of making myself the priority. Of planning my days around what I needed. Of sleeping. And suddenly I was spending many hours of all my days pushing my baby around neighborhood streets in his stroller.
Eli was a baby who needed to be moving, or he wouldn’t sleep. Getting those crucial naps in meant staying in motion and keeping him in a safe little cocoon that I made by hanging a blanket over the stroller.
Which brought me to the next oh-so-fun dilemma: How did I keep him in this safe little cocoon when his blanket kept falling off the stroller? Or if I managed to pile enough stuff on top of the stroller to secure one end of the blanket, then the other end would fly in and hit his face. And wake him. An extra annoyance came when the blanket fell and hit the street and ended up under the wheels, getting streaked with dirt.
Clearly, what I needed was a clip that would “hold a blanket fast to any model stroller, car seat or carrier but won’t pinch little fingers! True security at last,” as L.A. Parent magazine would say some years later. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Before nausea and prenatal vitamins entered my life, I worked as an actress mostly. If you were paying attention, you might have seen me on Beverly Hills 90210, Just Shoot Me, Everybody Loves Raymond, and 18 Wheels of Justice. Although the odds of succeeding in the entertainment industry are infinitesimal, there was nothing I wouldn’t try. I performed a one-woman show; I produced a show, GlenMary, GlenRose: Women Do Men, with celebrity actresses as a fundraiser for breast cancer research; and I directed a short film that played in festivals from Sarasota to Santa Cruz. I thought that if I just held on to that pant leg of life with all my might, my tenacity and fearlessness would land me a juicy role on a must-see sitcom, and my problems would be over. I devoured trade magazines like Variety and the Hollywood Reporter. I went to seminars and networking breakfasts to learn tidbits that might help me get that next job. I auditioned for anything and everything. I said I played the cello, which I hadn’t done since high school, and that landed me a job “playing” in a Don Henley music video (the music was prerecorded, thank goodness). My point is, I was determined, and I loved pursuing an acting career.
But when I went on my first nauseous, pregnant audition and pretended I wasn’t pregnant, I could smell—like a poopy diaper under a brand-new onesie—the writing on the wall. And when I dropped off my newborn at a friend’s house and ran to audition for a commercial (which I actually booked), it felt wrong to desert him and his needs and be focused back on mine. Without my permission, my priorities had shifted. I was now in the “I’m a mom and it’s not about me anymore” phase of life.
Excerpt #2:
The train is packed, so I have to stand. In my sensible heels, but heels, nonetheless. With my briefcase and luggage. I stick out like a sore American thumb. My feet hurt. I’m starving. I’m dehydrated. I’m having cramps. I stand like this for about two hours before a seat opens up just minutes before we arrive in Hong Kong.
I get off the train. Gary has explained that the underground tunnel I’m in has an exit that will lead me close to my hotel. I’m relieved to see signs in both English and Cantonese. I’ve been in this subway station before, when I splurged on some earrings, but I didn’t really take it in. There are expensive shops everywhere, although they’re all closed. Clinique makeup. Benetton. Designer everything. All so brightly lit and clean. Who knew there could be such fancy shopping in a subway station?
I’m overjoyed to find the entrance to the Renaissance Hotel. After I check in, I immediately order room service. Something recognizable. Pasta. I take a shower. Dinner arrives. I take one bite and pass out, my face inches from my plate.
The next morning, I have a meeting with Vincent and Nicole at Li & Fung. My blanket order is already underway, but it’s nice to meet them and establish more of a relationship.
Vincent says, “We can get anything you want made.”
Nicole chimes in. “Just let us know what you want, and we’ll find a factory that can do it.”
Their English is perfect, and the Li & Fung offices are super snazzy. They’ve got displays of many of the products they manufacture or source, and there are a lot of them. The lighting is white-blue cool, and the floors are polished, slick and gorgeous. I’m in another world here in Hong Kong from the one in Shenzhen—just an unbearable train ride away.
I arrive and learn that the factory owner’s wife stayed and worked on the prototypes until late in the night, and three new designs are finished. The bear’s face now looks like a bear’s face, the duck’s hands now go in the right direction, and the sheep looks cuter than ever. We can’t speak a word to each other, but she can see how pleased I am. I had to come to China to do this. Hard to believe what got accomplished in twenty-four hours. I visited the factory that’s going to make my blankyclips. I helped design and create the product I’m now going to sell. I peed in a hole in the floor. Mind-blowing.
I’m delighted to be back on the long train ride to Hong Kong, my work in Shenzhen done. There was so much discomfort dealing with the smoky office area, the incredible thirst, the language barrier, and the overall uneasiness of being in a factory where the workers are hunched over sewing machines and I’m the demanding American businesswoman. I decide to celebrate my victorious journey by treating myself to dinner at Nobu in the InterContinental Hotel. Oh, the shame of it, but seeing the Hong Kong harbor lights and the ferries going by while I’m reading a book and dining on the most amazing sushi ever really does not suck.
In the morning, I meet with Intertek to discuss the safety testing my product needs before it can be sold in the U.S. They are the experts of safety testing, and I find out what the tests are and how much they cost. Intertek will take my product and bang it around and do God knows what to it to see if it holds up. My main concern is that I pass the ASTM F963 test “for birth and up.” I’ll need to put a tag on the blankyclips, and that tag has to say that they’ve passed this test, which means they are safe for babies in the U.S., which in turn means I can sell them in the States. The Orthodox guys haven’t told me I need this test. They haven’t really been organizing much for me, and I wonder what would happen with my product if I didn’t take it upon myself to find these things out.
My time in China is almost over. I can’t wait to get back to my family. Peter has decided to meet me at the airport before my flight for a wrap-up. He feels good about the progress we made at the factory. “It’s very hard to understand the kind of design changes you wanted by talking about it on the phone,” he says. “The factory is happy to have this job, but mainly because they are looking forward to the giant order you will place when you begin selling in Walmart. At this point they are losing money on such a small ten-thousand-piece order.” He laughs a little to lighten his bummer message.
“Oh, yes,” I tell him. “I’m looking forward to selling blankyclips at Walmart too!” I let out a little chuckle.
“We want an order for millions of blankyclips!” he says. And now his laugh is even more committed.
We are both laughing, but the two of us have no idea how funny this conversation truly is.
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About the Author
Adrienne Alitowski invented, patented, and manufactured blankyclip®, a stroller accessory. She sold blankyclips nationally in Buy Buy Baby as well as in many boutiques across the country and around the world. As an actress, she performed on Broadway and toured with the National Theatre of the Deaf. Her television credits include Will & Grace, Just Shoot Me!, Everybody Loves Raymond, and Beverly Hills, 90210, among others. She produced and co-wrote her one-woman show, Just Tell Them You’re From Scarsdale, which she performed in New York and Los Angeles. She created, produced, and performed in the celebrity benefit Glen Mary Glen Rose: Women Do Men, in Los Angeles, which raised funds for breast cancer research as well as awareness about the lack of diverse roles for women. She is the mother of two and lives in Los Angeles with her family. Clipped is her first book.
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I enjoyed reading the excerpts and Clipped sounds like a fun memoir! Thanks for sharing it with me and have a wonderful holiday season!
You too! Thanks for commenting.