I am thrilled to announce our exciting HerStories news! Jessica and I began this series seven weeks ago as an exploration of the complexity and richness of women’s friendship. As the project evolved, we found ourselves drawn to the intriguing layer of friendship during motherhood. As mothers with young children, we realized that we both wanted to know more about why our friendships and relationships had changed since we became new mothers. And we wanted to know if other women had similar experiences. Motherhood is such a powerful force in many women’s lives, and we want to hear other women’s stories of how new motherhood has affected their friendships, emotional lives, and marriages.

Today we are introducing not only our new project, but our newly created website, The HerStories Project.

HSProject Large Button Collage2The HerStories Project will take a closer look at how women can find support during the challenging first five years of motherhood. When a mother finally emerges from the baby fog of the 4th trimester, she may look around, bewildered, not recognizing her own life. After transitioning out of the survival mode that accompanies the newborn months, mothers often realize that their support system as they knew it is no longer adequate to meet their needs. A mother may feel isolated, guilty, and confused about how to define herself in the context of her new life. Modifying old relationships and seeking out new sources of support is not always easy, and it may feel like an impossible task during a particularly overwhelming stage of life.

We will be presenting a series of experts in a variety of fields, including psychologists, sleep experts, and support group facilitators who will provide their knowledge and advice on establishing a support system to help cope with the transition to motherhood. We will also continue to feature guest essays on women’s friendship, with particular emphasis on friendship and motherhood.

One of the most exciting aspects of this project is that Jessica and I are in the process of creating a book proposal for our project, titled, HerStories: Finding Support, Staying Sane, and Reinventing Yourself During New Motherhood. We need your help! If you have become a mother for the first time in the past five years, we would like to invite you to take our survey about new motherhood. Your input and experiences will factor heavily into the material for both the website and our book proposal.

Here is a summary of our goals for The HerStories Project:

  • Seeking your valuable input through our New Motherhood Survey. Take the survey here and add your voice! The survey will be available to take during the entire month of May.
  • Consulting a variety of experts to bring you helpful and meaningful information about how to find support during this stage.
  • Sharing our own stories of motherhood and friendship
  • Featuring more powerful HerStories guest contributor essays
  • Creating a book proposal for our project:  HerStories: Finding Support, Staying Sane, and Reinventing Yourself During New Motherhood

We would love your support and participation in this project! Take the survey if you have become a mother in the last five years, and please continue to send us your fantastic essay submissions. We would love to have you follow The HerStories Project:

If you would like to submit an essay to HerStories, you can still contact us at herstoriesfriendshiptales@gmail.com. Please send a 500-1000 word essay along with at 2-3 sentence bio and any photos you’d like to use.

We couldn’t have gotten this far without you, so thank you very much for your support, encouragement, and beautiful essays! We hope you continue to be a part of this project!

Stephanie & Jessica

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