Women behind The Sims - International Women's Day Q&A

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My nerdy, paranoid Scientist and Hero of Strangerville

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A wealthy socialite widow who was treated to a cruise by her best friends after the death of her husband. The boat sank and she washed up on the shores of Windenburg Island. She used resources on the island and things that washed up on shore from the sunken ship to survive and thrive. The island was completely deserted when she arrived, but by the time she was finally rescued, Olivia had built a cabin for herself and three others. She also began to build a spa which would be completed and open after she was rescued. Olivia stayed on the island, married a massage therapist she met at her spa and the couple are expecting their first child.

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My founder Scientist who is at the top of her career now. Her daughter, Rose is a teen and will soon take over as the Gen 2 heir.

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An accomplished violinist, Delilah was lured to Forgotten Hollow with the promise of peace and quiet to practice her craft after buying a piece of land and a tiny house sight unseen. Probably not the smartest thing to do since once she arrived, she realized her new 'home' was actually an abandoned mausoleum. She would later fall in love with one of her neighbors only to discover he was a vampire. Love will make us do some questionable things, but Delilah didn't care. When Caleb asked her to let him turn her so they could spend eternity together, she agreed without a second thought. The couple are engaged now and will marry in the near future.

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I took a lot of time with Vanessa helping her to get her painting, cooking, gourmet cooking, baking and gardening to Level 10 before she built and finally opened her Art Gallery/Bakery named Artsy Tartsy. This Sim is the only one of a few I've taken the time to plan everything out beforehand including the items for sale in the bakery and what would be needed to make them, the layout of the store, researched a name and much more. It was so much fun and Vanessa's store is very successful. She lives in an apartment above the store, has a rooftop garden and a fully equipped gym in the basement. She's dating Don Lothario, but I'm not sure if that will ever go anywhere considering his nature. :)

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Leanne and I have taken many adventures in her quest to collect everything the game has to collect. She's been to every single world I had at the time multiple times and we learned many things together about the game as a result. She's also the first Sim I ever gave the Glutton trait. I'd heard things about it, but didn't know what to expect. I love it! It's hilarious and actually, a bit heart-warming (at least to me) seeing how very much she enjoys food.

She's also the first Sim that I ever had use a Generic lot. That's where she kept all her collections. She had an empty lot, a retail store (never opened) where she lived and the generic lot, which besides the collections also featured a microscope, observatory and rocket ship in order to get all the collectibles associated with them. Why did I decide to do this? It's a tax shelter and a way to cut down on lag from having so many objects on the lot where she would live. As a result, Leanne has a luxury home on the retail lot, all collections and only pays 33 simoleans in bills every week. :)

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My founder, a single Mom and a Comedian at the top of her career. She's the first Comedian I ever had in the game and she made me love it! I also loved playing with her best friend, Vanessa Chance, a Detective. This was also the first time I'd ever played in the Detective career, so that was fun to play too. I guess you could say there's two successful women in this household. Vanessa's husband, Glenn, is an Astronaut and their daughter, Carley, is a Tech Guru. The Gen 2 heir, Greta, doesn't have a job yet, at least that I can remember. It's been a while since I played this challenge due to serious lag from my old laptop. I have plans to continue this challenge at a later date.

Iris found herself homeless after her husband of 50 years died. Much to her surprise, she learned he had never paid their taxes and somehow managed to keep that fact from detection by the IRS. He had an insurance policy, but everything he'd put into it over the years was seized, plus their home and everything in it sold to pay off the massive debt. The couple didn't have any children since Iris was barren and all her former friends had slowly moved away or died over the years. Iris had no where to go and no money.

All she had left, which was worthless to the IRS, was a backpack full of notebooks filled with poems, short stories and one unfinished novel. Iris thought of herself as a writer, but never had the courage to actually show anyone her creations, not even her husband. She didn't know if she was any good at it, but she told herself she didn't care. It was just something she 'had' to do, it made her feel at peace when writing.

She befriended a community gardener with whom she grew to trust and showed him her work. He encouraged her to submit one of her poems for publication. The publishing house raved about it and signed her up immediately, found her an agent and best of all, sent a large check with the promise of more for her poems and stories.

Iris built herself a modest home, asked Leo to move in with her and they got married soon after. She wanted to spend the rest of whatever days she had left with the man she'd grown to love, her best friend and biggest fan. The couple spent their honeymoon taking care of Leo's garden, Iris writing, relaxing around the house in the hot tub, drinks on the patio, watching movies and listening to Leo play guitar as he serenaded his new bride. They also spent one day swimming, diving and horsing around at The bluffs.

One night they decided to dress up and go out to the local tavern where they had some drinks, played a round of Don't Wake the Llama with a couple Knights and capped it off with a round of Foosball. Neither one was all that ready for the night to end though, so they traveled to The Ruins to enjoy a Bon Fire before finally going back home.

The next day, the very next day, Iris died. I was devastated and so was Leo. He kept her urn on the fireplace mantel next to her pet fish, Petey the Pirhana, not being able to part with her just yet. Three days later she emerged for one last day together and asked him to bury her at Sylvan Glades. When she left in a mist back into the urn, never to be seen again, though it was hard to do, Leo kept his back turned at her request.

Leo traveled to Sylvan Glades and buried her next to the pond where she had caught Petey. He planted purple Iris's around the tombstone and lay down next to her one last time to watch the stars, pointing out her favorites before he said a final goodbye and left.

I'll never forget Iris, she was the spunkiest, most full of life elder I've ever had in my game. Except for one other couple, she and Leonardo were also the most loving to each other I've ever had too.

I wrote a prologue & one chapter for Iris & Leonardo on WordPress called, Hold Me Close. But unfortunately, it only went as far as their night out. I guess this is a bit of a spoiler for that. I had plans to continue, but when Iris died, I didn't have the heart or the will to write about them anymore. Oh well. Anyway, thanks for reading!