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When Josie Santi ’14 was 8, she would pore over the latest issue of Vogue, reading it cover-to-cover. A few years later, as an upper school student at North Shore Country Day, she and some classmates created the Happiness Club, whose only mission was to find and do things that made them, fellow students, teachers and others happy. 

 

Those two inclinations, love of fashion and a desire to help others with a dose of happiness, helped Josie discover her life’s calling. She credits her NSCD experience — especially a comparative religions course she took as a senior — for focusing that calling even more sharply.

 

 

That NSCD class prompted her to continue studying world religions. She eventually graduated with a double major in English and religious studies from Florida’s Rollins College and laughs now, saying she’s made more use of the latter than of her English degree. 

 

Today Josie lives in Los Angeles; she’s a certified holistic health coach and senior wellness editor at The Everygirl, an online site created in 2012 with a mission to be, in the words of its founders, “a community-driven platform that speaks to women from all backgrounds and experiences.”  She’s also the host of The Everygirl Podcast, tackling educational, entertainment and inspirational issues with guests. 

 

For her, The Everygirl Media Group, which she joined as an intern in 2017 before coming aboard fulltime in 2018, lets her further her goal of helping people, especially women, understand their bodies (and life in general), in a positive rather than proscriptive way.  

 

Josie was born in Cincinnati. Her family moved to Winnetka when she was 7, and she attended local public schools through middle school. Her older sister, Casey, graduated from the local public high school, but parents Nancy and Scott Santi worried both that Josie wouldn’t thrive in that very large school and that they wouldn’t be able to form strong connections with their daughter’s teachers. 

 

That’s when they turned to North Shore, Josie said.

 

She initially fought the move. She wanted to stay with her school friends, she told her parents: “As a squirrelly 14-year-old I didn’t want that. But of course, as parents do, they got me to go.”

 

Once she started to find her footing, “I was like, ‘OK, this is actually amazing, how close and connected I can feel to others in my grade, because of how small the grade is and how you’re in the same classes with everybody.’ 

 

“And then I absolutely fell in love with the school.”

 

Josie also learned to treasure her teachers. She remembers the support she received from French teacher Lynsey Wollin-Casey, English teachers Drea Gallaga (currently also director of NSCD’s Live+Serve Lab) and Kathy McHugh, former history teacher Frank Dachille, and the late Vanessa Molzahn, who was her mathematics teacher. 

 

She credits Ms. Molzahn with knowing her well enough to guide Josie into courses that would complement her strengths. Josie had huge difficulties with math and, as she approached her senior year, her teacher encouraged her to take an elective course in personal finance instead of the more typical next step of precalculus.

 

“She said, ‘I think this is going to be a really hard class for you, and personal finance would serve you so much more,’” Josie said.
Mrs. McHugh understood her love of writing, Josie said. When Josie thought about taking AP English, Mrs. McHugh instead suggested doing a creative writing independent study project; while AP English might look good on a college application, she told her student, it would require her to read rather than hone her own writing. She and Josie worked together on the independent study project, with Mrs. McHugh editing and helping Josie improve her abilities.
Josie said her personal relationship with Ms. Gallaga was another bright spot throughout her school years. 

 

“I think that’s one of the most special things about North Shore — how you can get really close to a teacher in freshman year, and that relationship only grows every single year. It’s not like other schools where you’re like, ‘I love my teacher so much but I’m never going to see them again.’”

 

As her NSCD experience continued, including becoming student body president, so did Josie’s intention to become a fashion writer. Her love of and dedication to fashion dates a long way back. 

 

“I was 8 years old and was reading Vogue. My mom kept trying to take it away from me, and I was, ‘No, this is my bible!’” she laughed.
Josie said creativity is one of the things she has always loved about fashion. And despite her mom’s worry that Josie’s wearing of high heels in high school might hurt her feet, one of the many things she loves about her mother and father is their unstinting support of her goals. 

 

She thanks mom Nancy for supporting her mission. For instance, she ensured that Josie could go to New York after she won a weekend internship with Teen Vogue. (“I was planning on doing the whole Anna Wintour thing working for Vogue; that was my path,” Josie said.)

 

She praises Nancy, a former teacher, for her creative influence on all her children, including Josie’s sister, Casey, and younger brother, Richard ’17. She also applauds her dad, Scott, the former CEO of Illinois Tool Works, for his lessons on the importance of positive teamwork.

 

“I’ve always said my parents are really amazing at not telling their kids who they should be; they let their kids tell them who they are. They were always phenomenal at that,” she said.  

 

Her parents also encouraged her passion and determination.  She showed both in connecting with The Everygirl. The site, which eventually became The Everygirl Media Group, started in Chicago, and Josie knew and loved what she saw of its message to girls and women. 

 

She had won a six-month internship in Paris with Elle Magazine, but at the end of that 2016 experience, she wanted to come home to Chicago before going back to complete her Rollins College degrees. Between 2014 and 2018, she had been an intern, a columnist and a contributor at various outlets. Now she decided she wanted to become an intern at The Everygirl. 

 

“I reached out to them every single day for months. I was that annoying girl," she said. "Eventually, they responded to me. I submitted some samples, and I got the internship.”

 

Although she still enjoyed writing about style issues, her interest in comparative religions was reshaping her worldview and her spiritual odyssey. 

 

“When I got to college, my thought was ‘Yes I want to be a fashion writer and editor, but I loved this world religion class so much in high school that I want to keep taking religion classes for fun.’ I was so fascinated by Buddhism and Hinduism. I just loved it,” she says.

 

She discovered the ancient concepts of Ayurvedic health practices and she says its focus on the totality of body and mind truly changed the way she thought about health. Her earlier understanding of healthy living — a focus on weight loss and obsessions with calories, fats, proteins and the like — transformed. 

 

 

“This was this aha moment for me: ‘Oh, caring about health and your body is actually a tool to live your best life.’”

 

In 2019, Josie moved with her fiance to Los Angeles, where she long had wanted to go. The Everygirl wanted her to stay on staff as its fashion features manager. She loved the work, but her views on fashion and health combined more and more.

 

“The fashion world is so body focused, and there’s a lot of insecurity. My experience with many of the women in my life was that they hated how their bodies looked," she said. "They were at war with their bodies. I realized ‘Oh my God, I have to help other people feel different about their bodies, especially women!’” 

 

As she worked to recenter her own life and health, Josie took a course through the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and became an integrative nutrition health coach in 2019. She didn’t intend to actually coach; she simply wanted to study and learn more. But she soon realized she could help women as a life coach as well as through her work with The Everygirl. 

 

She still works with clients with her Wellness by Josie project, but The Everygirl Podcast allows her to interact with women in a different way. 

 

Josie had felt something was missing in her work, so when she found out her bosses at The Everygirl were thinking about starting a podcast, she approached them about doing it, and they agreed. Josie, who calls herself "a classic middle child who loves attention," says she loves getting feedback from her listeners. 

 

Josie admits her work ethic often finds her working weekdays and weekends, but says, “burnout is not about the hours you work; it’s about how you recharge your energy.” She and her fiance love walking and cooking together, and they dote on Louie, their French bulldog.

 

“I prioritize joy more than anything,” Josie said. “And I’m living my happiest, best self.”

 

North Shore students who watched cute baby animal videos or noshed on cupcakes, courtesy of the Happiness Club, might not be surprised that Josie still dedicates herself to being happy and helping others feel the same.