Exclusive | NYC moms are turning empty nest syndrome into opportunity

Uptown women can turn anything into a business opportunity — even their kids leaving the 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.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.She calls her business “Empty Questers.”“I’ve always disliked the phrase ‘empty nester’ because it rings of lack,” Korren, who lives on the Upper East Side, told The Post.“It describes the end of a period in a parent’s life with nothing more than 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.According to data, there may not be as many empty nesters as there used to be.

Nearly 33% of American adults under 35 still live with their parents, according to a 2025 survey.But that means 66% of grown kids have left the nest — leaving moms especially vulnerable to feeling lonely and even somewhat useless.Gwen Mitrano, 53, was one of those women.After selling her family home in Connecticut and moving back to her home city of Manhattan in 2022, she joined Empty Questers last year. 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.“Initially, the most surprising thing was how quiet our home was,” Mitrano, who sold her Connecticut home after her daughters left for college, said.

“I kept expecting the front door to swing open to see my daughters and their friends coming and going.”And whil...