Meet Elana Horwich of Meal and a Spiel in Beverly Hills

Today we’d like to introduce you to Elana Horwich.

Elana, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I was born in Beverly Hills, into a family of disciplined high achievers. My father Jim, a math-nerd and Harvard Business School graduate, founded a successful manufacturing business, and my mother Ada, a Berkeley-educated Peace Corps alum, was a therapist who became an avid political fundraiser. My parents are well-known philanthropists in the Jewish community.

I’m the second of three daughters – my older sister is a prominent cardiologist, married to a transplant surgeon, and they have two brilliant children. My younger sister is a therapist and parenting teacher, married to an über-mensch who volunteered for the Israeli army, and they’re raising three bilingual daughters on a gluten-free, dairy-free diet, i.e. the Los Angeles dream.

And then, there’s me: by seventh grade, I was on a parallel path toward greatness, achievement, societal and parental approval. That year, I ran for student government, delivering an improvised speech in rhyming couplets that won me a landslide victory as student body president at Hawthorne Elementary School. Then, at Beverly High, I was the only freshman on the varsity soccer team. On my own initiative, I sought out and gained admission to a competitive East Coast boarding school, where I graduated cum laude. During summers, while my peers hung out at the Century City Mall, I volunteered in impoverished Latin American villages, building latrines. My senior year, I earned early acceptance to Brown University. Ivy League, here I come!

And then, in my sophomore year of college, I chose to upend my life completely.

 

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