Erin Bried, Park Slope mom to two daughters (Ellie, five, and Bea, one) is yet another amazing example of a mom who didn't like what she saw, and decided to do something about it. "This past winter, Ellie and I went to the bookstore to pick up a few books, and on our way out, we stopped by the newsstand to see if there were any cool magazines for her," she says. "Every single one we saw that day featured a princess, a girl wearing makeup or coverlines boasting of stories on good manners or getting pretty hair. Since Ellie’s more interested in pirates than princesses right now, we left empty-handed. She was bored. I was angry. I thought, is this really all we have to offer our daughters?" Knowing a thing or two about magazines, the career Conde Nast editor and writer launched a Kickstarter campaign to give girls ages 5 - 10 the publication they deserved. (Within 30 days it closed as the highest funded journalism campaign in the company's history.) "Clearly, there are other parents out there, like me, who want to show their girls that there’s a world full of possibility out there."
Kazoo's second issue came out in October, and regular features include science experiments; comics; art projects; recipes; interviews with inspiring women from Olympic athletes to astronauts; and fun activities, like secret codes, jokes, mazes, search-and-finds and more. "Our mission is to encourage girls to be smart, strong, fierce, and, above all, true to themselves."
Yet Another Reason To Like Her: "We always say to our daughter Ellie, who loves to climb trees as high as she possibly can: 'What’s the number 1 rule? Be safe. What’s number 2 rule? Have fun!' And I think that’s how we try to live our lives. We treat every day as a new adventure, where anything is possible, and everything is wondrous, and I’m very proud of that. My wife and I are raising curious, brave, kind and generous kids, because that’s how we try to be in our own lives, too."
Work Life: Honestly, I’m still working on that. When you’re running a start-up, there is no downtime, and I count myself extremely lucky to have a partner, who, as a literary agent, has a flexible schedule and a creative mind. She helps me with everything from editing the fiction in the magazine to picking up Ellie from kindergarten. And after the kids go to bed, we hop on our computers to pull a second shift...But no matter how much work there is to do for the magazine, we’ve built in rituals to our lives that we never break: We eat dinner together every night. We read books together before bed. We do Friday night movie night and Sunday morning soccer in the park, which I coach. And every Saturday, we go exploring, whether it’s a trip to the rock climbing wall in Dumbo, the Brooklyn Museum or the Bronx Zoo. Those times are sacred to me. No computers. No phone. Just us.
photo: Erin Bried
