Honoring Moms on a Mission
Mother’s Day is a biggie around the office of The Mother Company because…well…mothers. It is also the anniversary of our other child – this business. This year we’re six! Raising a company is not unlike raising a very expensive, exhausting child that never says “I love you” in return. But this week, someone else said “I love you” to us – and it felt amazing. We wanted to share…
TheBump.com came up with the awesome idea of honoring moms who are making a difference with an event called Moms Movers + Makers. When we learned that we’d made the honoree list, we blushed. How did they find us? What did we win for? We had no clue. When you create a brand from your brain, you don’t imagine that one day an established megabrand like TheBump will be asking to honor you… I mean you hope that will happen but when it happens, it is surreal.
So… one perfectly glorious day this week, the group of nominated Movers and Makers met for a gorgeous lunch styled by the insanely talented Natalie Good from A Good Affair at The Millwick, a new event space in downtown Los Angeles. Sliding images of all the honorees (including us!) filled the wall behind the stage. Florals hung from the ceiling and lined the long tables. Personalized napkin rings signaled where we were to be.
As I entered the space, Kristen Bell was answering questions about parenting. Holly Robinson Peete (who heads her HollyRod Foundation) and I connected over mutual friends…and missions
In general, I met a ton of awesome mamas. Here are some of the moms on a mission you should know about:
Ashlee Wells, a photographer who created the 4th Trimester Project which is helping to change cultural expectations of women after birth, because culturally “women are expected to shrink and make the evidence of their pregnancies invisible.” I couldn’t agree more.
I met three nurses who had flown in from Virginia who created a way for new mothers to experience skin-to-skin contact after c-sections with their clever drape invention. This is so crucial in helping to preventing post partum depression, in easing the bond between mother and child, and in providing familiar sounds, smell and comfort to the newborn. Can I get a Amen?!
I met the Alliance of Moms who are working hard to educate and provide resources to young girls in foster care – 75% of them who will become young mothers before they turn 21. (I made a special note in the program to follow up with them so that I could volunteer to hold the newborns in foster care.)
There were moms who are inventing better ways to pump in public places.
Moms who have given TED talks fighting for better paid leave options for parents. Our country’s leave policies are among the worst (if not THE WORST) in the developed world.
And so many other inspiring people – I was honored to be among them.
And then it came time TO BE honored. Here I am, giving our acceptance speech, hugging Kristen Bell and Julia Wang from The Bump and feeling like I just won the lottery:
In all, I learned one thing that we share with all the women who where there. We all soldier on despite the hardships – because we’re compelled to. It is our calling. We have found our missions and they are meaningful. We are social entrepreneurs. Not Mompreneurs (I despise that word) and we are a force to be reckoned with. Motherhood made that all possible. Motherhood and more.
Happy Mother’s Day.
If you would like to read more about this special event and all of the women honored click here or search #momsmoversandmakers on social media.
The Mother Company aims to support parents and their children, providing thought-provoking web content and products based in social and emotional learning for children ages 3-6. Check out episodes of our “Ruby’s Studio” children’s video series, along with our beautiful children’s books, apps, music, handmade dolls, and more.
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