Welcome to BHPOmom.com!

Well hello! Welcome to BHPOmom.com. I’m Susan – the BHPO mom herself. You’re probably wondering what BHPO means. Let’s start with that.

BHPO stands for “Beverly Hills Post Office.” It’s a unique real estate situation in Beverly Hills, California, my hometown*. Beverly Hills Post Office refers to an area of Los Angeles that is, postally speaking, relabeled as Beverly Hills, 90210. But it’s Los Angeles. The city of Los Angeles serves the area in terms of sanitation, utilities, police and fire departments, and public schools. Everything about it is L.A., except the mailing address – hence “Post Office.” Now why would you want your house labeled as BHPO? For the prestige! For the looks! For the fancy address!

I lived in BHPO from the time I was born until I was 17. I remember the first time I discovered that we didn’t, in fact, live in Beverly Hills. I was looking at some sort of document related to the house and it listed our public schools. And they were L.A. schools! This is when my fascination with BHPO began. This is so very Los Angeles. Angelenos re-brand and re-name themselves all the time. Why not do it with street addresses, too?!

Here are a few links that describe BHPO. Wikipedia and L.A. Times 

So why am I the BHPO mom and why are we here?

The older I get (I’m 42), the more I am trying to make sense of my past and my upbringing. My childhood was not a scene from Beverly Hills, 90210. How do our families and our places of origin shape us? I am from a place that labels itself as something it is not. A place that is trying to sell itself as fancier, as shinier, as more expensive, as…BETTER. What if I’m just fine the way I am?

I don’t know yet what we will focus on here. Knowing me, a lot of stuff. I’m very open to your feedback, so let me know what you want to read about!

Xo,

BHPO

*I’m from Beverly Hills Post Office, to be clear.