Donna Korren, a 61-year-old former Vogue executive living on the Upper East Side, created a social network called "Empty Quester" for mothers whose children have left home for college. Membership costs $240 annually and includes monthly online chats and occasional in-person gatherings. The article highlights how many women feel isolated after their children leave home, as evidenced by statistics showing that while 33% of American adults under 35 still live with parents, the remaining 66% have left, leaving mothers to navigate newfound loneliness. Gwen Mitrano, a 53-year-old who moved back to Manhattan from Connecticut when her daughters went to college, found Empty Quester after feeling isolated in her neighborhood and seeking older peers for social interaction.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-10-06,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
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.”
asserted
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.
asserted
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.
asserted
% → 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.
asserted
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.
asserted
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.
asserted
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.
asserted
she → love → motherhood
Mitrano tried stitch nights, oil painting, meditation and silk painting classes, but often found herself surrounded by people decades younger.
asserted
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.
asserted
she → ’re → people
“I had a running joke with my husband that women in their 50s just don’t live in Manhattan.”
asserted
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.
asserted
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.
asserted
she → know → Manolos
“I was pleasantly surprised to meet interesting women at a similar life intersection to mine,” she told The Post.
asserted
she → surprise → Post
“You can never underestimate the power of girlfriends.”
asserted
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.”
asserted
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.
asserted
members → mingle → whisperer
Other gatherings have included drinks, meals and even panel discussions about life beyond daily parenting.
asserted
gatherings → include → parenting
Some moms are even getting a jump on empty nester status while their kids are still at home.
asserted
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.”
asserted
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.
asserted
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.
asserted
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.
asserted
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.”
asserted
it → allow → brain
The therapist says the city is an ideal place to practice social skills and form connections as an empty nester.
asserted
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.
asserted
videos → view → times
…and 5 more, not listed.
The Aporia
