Written & Photographed by A Wild Dove
If motherhood has ever left you feeling lost or alone (and let’s face it, who hasn’t felt that way?), the ladies behind heymama are inviting you in to join their community of awesome mamas doing incredible things in the creative space.
Amri Kibbler met business partner Katya Libin on a playdate in Brooklyn with their three-month old daughters when the pair became great friends. Though they were both working 9-5 jobs, Amri as a magazine editor and Katya doing business development, they decided to start a site to connect women globally.
The result?
A place to collaborate, inspire and support all moms in their work. Some of the badass mamas on the site range from designers like Rebecca Taylor and Jenni Kayne, to fashion blogger Charlotte Groeneveld. Since the site launched, heymama has grown into a full scale membership organization that connects working mamas to each other, thus inspiring collaboration, creation and friendship. We sat down with Amri and Katya to talk inspiration for the site, their proudest moment yet and what they think today’s mom needs to thrive -
What made you decide to launch HeyMama?
Amri: Our original motivation was much simpler than where we are now. Originally Katya and I were looking for a way to connect with other cool moms, we'd both struggled to find women we could relate to who had kids. In our early brainstorming stages we started meeting up with as many mamas for coffees and playdates as we could to pick their brains and soon realised that the thing we were talking about was our careers, both present and aspirational. Our community wanted to network and share the struggle to make their dreams happen while being a present mother.
Katya: We believe that mamas are stronger together than apart and that there is a beautiful community out there of women who are passionate about their voice and dreams outside of motherhood. We wanted to celebrate and connect them together.
What was the goal behind it and do you think you're achieving it?
Amri: We do! We aim to create a space for creative and entrepreneurial women that encourages and inspires them while providing real insight and advice they can relate to. We get so much interaction from our followers saying that it's made a difference for them!
Katya: We would love for mamas to feel connected and unified in their shared personal journeys to build their companies and express themselves creatively while being parents. We know it can feel isolating at times when you're sending an email at 2am but there are so many mamas doing the same, it's comforting to know that you're dreams are not too big, and achievable with the right support system.
What’s been your proudest moment on the site?
Katya: I think my proudest moment was having a mama with a small chocolate business email me the nicest note I've ever been sent. We were able to help her business in a powerful way and she told us about how she was able to show her daughter how hard works pays off. I think I cried. That and being in Vogue Bambini was pretty cool!!
What were some of the issues you were facing as a new mom that contributed to this idea?
Amri: We were going through the same thing at the same time. I didn't have a strong network of mama friends I could relate to and lean on, so I felt isolated in that part of my life. I also wanted to make a career change and was looking for answers on how to figure out what I really wanted to do and how to get started. heymama was created out of a search to fill those two voids.
What do you hope women will get out of HeyMama?
Amri: The support system of community. A reassurance that the opportunities available to them are not limited to the jobs on LinkedIn. That there are women crafting their own career identities and building brands, women just like them, who started out with just ideas and turned it into a successful business.
Location: Two Hands Restaurant & Bar, NYC