I really have created a family. I work with the people I love, I

Drew Barrymore, born into a dynasty of actors yet shaped by her own trials and triumphs, once spoke with the clarity of one who has remade her life through love and labor: “I really have created a family. I work with the people I love, I travel with them, I make films with them, and I'm in an office with them. So in a weird way—I know I haven't birthed a child—I feel that I'm a part of creating a family. It's a tribe. I love that word.” These words are filled with tenderness and strength, revealing a vision of family not bound only by blood, but woven together through shared purpose, loyalty, and love.

The origin of this reflection lies in Barrymore’s own life journey. As a child star, she faced loneliness, alienation, and the hardships of growing up too fast in the glare of Hollywood’s lights. Yet out of these trials, she sought to create her own circle of trust and belonging. In her films, in her business ventures, and in her friendships, she gathered around her those she loved, turning work into fellowship and projects into bonds of kinship. When she speaks of creating a family, she is not imagining it—she is describing the life she built deliberately, one where love and collaboration replace isolation and competition.

Her words echo the wisdom of the ancients, who knew that tribe was not only defined by bloodlines but also by shared fire, common struggle, and collective destiny. In the deserts and forests, men and women survived not as individuals but as groups bound by devotion. To call her circle a tribe is to honor this ancient truth—that what sustains us is not only ancestry, but the weaving of lives into a common fabric, where each contributes and each belongs. In this sense, Barrymore stands in the lineage of all who have learned that to “make a family” is an act of creation as noble as any birth.

History provides shining examples of such chosen families. Consider the circle of writers and thinkers in early twentieth-century Paris—the “Lost Generation,” where Hemingway, Stein, Fitzgerald, and others found in each other the support and inspiration that gave birth to timeless works. They were not family by blood, yet through shared endeavor they became a kind of tribe, carrying one another through hardship and into greatness. So too in art, science, and revolution, groups of companions have forged families through shared passion, proving that kinship of spirit is as enduring as kinship of flesh.

Barrymore’s words also carry a deeper wisdom about the meaning of creation. To birth a child is one of life’s profound acts, but it is not the only way to create. Every project that brings love into the world, every work built with care, every bond of trust forged in struggle, is also creation. She reminds us that one need not limit the definition of family to the household alone. Wherever people unite with love, loyalty, and a shared purpose, there is family; wherever hearts are knit together in trust, there is tribe.

The lesson for us is clear: do not wait passively for family to be handed to you by circumstance. Create it. Gather around you those who uplift, who share your dreams, who walk with you through joy and sorrow. Honor them, work with them, and call them your own. The bonds we choose can be as strong, or even stronger, than the bonds we inherit. To live fully is to recognize this power: the power to shape our lives not only through personal achievement, but through the creation of circles of belonging.

Practically, this means seeking out those whose hearts align with yours and nurturing those bonds with care. Build communities, not just careers. Treat colleagues, friends, and companions with the love you would extend to family. Celebrate victories together, endure hardships together, and speak of one another not as strangers of convenience, but as kin of choice. In this way, each of us can build our own tribe, a circle of strength that carries us forward.

Thus, Drew Barrymore’s words shine with a universal truth: “I really have created a family…It’s a tribe.” Let them remind us that family is not merely inherited—it is also made. It is forged in love, in shared endeavor, in laughter, and in loyalty. And to create such a tribe is one of the highest acts of human life, for it is in family, whether born or chosen, that we find the strength to endure, the joy to celebrate, and the belonging that turns mere existence into life abundant.