Cleo - The People Pleaser
“I’m tired of fixing everyone else. But what happens when I stop?”
“The caregiver who’s ready to take care of herself, for the first time ever.”
Cleo’s entire life has been an act of loving performance. Birthday cakes, doctor’s appointments, late-night emotional triage. She’s loved every minute with her three kids and handled it all with grace. But now? The silence in her empty house echoes with a question: What do I want? She’s still cooking dinner for a husband who barely looks up from his iPad. Her aging parents call her for help or information three times a day. And Cleo? She’s standing in the kitchen, holding a spatula like a sword, daring to dream of freedom.
You Might Be Cleo If...
Your house is quieter than it used to be, but your to-do list hasn’t gotten any shorter
You’re still scheduling everyone’s appointments… but forget your own
You feel guilty imagining a life that doesn’t revolve around your family
You crave alone time, but fear it in equal measure
You sometimes feel invisible in your own home
You secretly envy women who just... leave
Her Inner Conflict
"They still need me."
Cleo stares into the fridge, wondering what to make for dinner. Her husband has already requested his favourite pasta, but she’s not sure if she has tomatoes. Her mother asked for soup again. No one asked what she wanted. No one ever has.
She used to thrive in the chaos. She loved the pickup lines, grocery lists, and family group texts because she was the one who held it all together. Now the chaos is gone, and in its place is a question she doesn’t know how to answer.
"Is this just who I am now? The one who remembers birthdays, fills prescriptions, and always shows up when summoned? What happens when there’s no one left to show up for?"
She opens her journal but doesn’t write. She hasn’t figured out how to want something without feeling selfish.
"It’s not that I’m unhappy," she thinks. "It’s that I don’t even know what happy looks like."
She folds the laundry in silence, but there’s a new voice whispering under the hum of the dryer:
"What if it’s your turn?"
Her Secret Longing
Cleo wants to feel like a whole person again. Not a role. Not a title.
She wants to rediscover the girl she was before the world taught her to say yes before thinking.
She wants space that belongs only to her and the courage to claim it.
The Loop She's Stuck In
Cleo keeps trying to earn her worth through service.
She believes if she can just get everyone else settled, then she’ll have time to figure out what she wants.
But someone always needs something. And she’s trained herself to answer every call.
Call to Adventure
Cleo’s husband has gone golfing for the weekend. He always does exactly what he wants to do.
Cleo is scrolling through Instagram, avoiding her empty calendar, when an ad for a last-minute Airbnb booking in the mountains pops up. It's off-grid, and there is no phone or wifi service.
Does she dare?
She steps into the garden, the scent of roses wafts toward her, and she sits on the back step. She asks herself.
“If I didn’t feel guilty, what would I want?”
She realizes she wants to spend time with herself, not waiting dutifully at home to wash her husband’s golf clothes on his return, sitting by the phone in case her mother needs her, or checking her texts because her daughter has fifty questions a day about managing her new apartment.
She books the apartment and walks out the door.
What She’s Learning
Cleo is beginning to realize that putting her needs first isn’t abandonment of others, it’s a reclamation of herself.
She’s not losing her identity. She’s finding it.
And maybe for the first time in her life, she’s learning how to listen to what her soul is whispering.
Choose Cleo as Your Heroine Companion
Want Cleo by your side on your next Pocket or Adventure Quest? Choose her when your journey is about untangling your identity from obligation, learning to set boundaries without apology, and making space for your own voice to rise.
She won’t push you.
She’ll sit beside you and say, “We’ve taken care of everyone else. Now let’s take care of you.”