The Evolution of a Blog

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Jill Smokler, AKA Scary Mommy

What started as an innocent on-line baby book to chronicle Jill's stay-at-home days with her children, (Lily, Ben, and Evan) quickly transformed into a vibrant community of parents, brought together by a common theme: Parenting doesn’t have to be perfect. Learn more here.

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Latest posts by Jill Smokler, AKA Scary Mommy (see all)

• Taking Back What’s Ours - June 19, 2013
• Dear Judgy Mothers on My Website… - June 15, 2013
• 10 Skills Every Mother Should Possess - June 10, 2013

As I’ve often said, Scary Mommy began as a baby book when my kids ranged in age from newborn through pre-schooler. It started innocently as a blog, but quickly became my lifeline at a time when it seemed no other mothers I knew in real life were struggling the way I was. It was my solace. My community. My sanity.

Over the past five years, I’ve watched proudly as other scary mommies have turned to the blog for comfort, camaraderie, and a sense of belonging. Since the early days of my blog, I’ve sought to evolve the site into something more than just a place to post my own personal musings. So much more.

The transition has been gradual. First, I introduced the Scary Mommy Society, a place where other bloggers could share their perspective on parenting and the response was overwhelming, with a six month long wait-list at times. Then I developed the Scary Mommy Confessional, so all of those scary mommies who desperately needed a likeminded community but who were not ready to lift the veil of anonymity could share their stories. 273,000 confessions later, and the stories keep coming. Last year, I introduced the Scary Mommy message boards, which today serve as an online community of thousands of (mostly) women who, like me five years ago, know that there are other mothers like them out there. And through Scary Mommy, they’ve found one another.

Well, the changes continue. You may have noticed that you have not heard much from me these past few weeks. Instead, I’ve introduced some new writers — sometimes three each day — who are funny and smart and heartbreaking and irreverent and … familiar. Scary mommies are everywhere, and their collective voices are so much more interesting and entertaining than my singular perspective could ever be. And so what once was my personal blog has evolved into a true community for imperfect parenting. A place where we all have our say. As I enter year five of all things Scary Mommy, my priority is to keep bringing to this wonderful community content that makes you laugh. Stories that make you nod your head. Voices that make you feel less alone.

This doesn’t mean you’ve heard the last of me. I’ll still be one of those voices; I just won’t be the only one. Some weeks I may have a lot to say, and other weeks I might let you do the talking. My goal is to keep making Scary Mommy a parenting destination like no other on the web. And I can’t do that alone.

As always, you can find me on Twitter, Facebook, on my message boards, and you can reach me at jill{at}scarymommy{dot}com.

Scary Mommies of the world unite!