Those Young Moms

Stephanie (& Taylor!)

Hello! I’m Stephanie from the blog, Those Young Moms. I am currently a student at the University of Oregon, and mother to my almost two-year-old daughter, Taylor. I’m also a coffee-loving vegetarian with a sarcastic sense of humor, but I hold an even better title as Holly’s youngest sister. When Holly approached me to write a guest post for her new blog, I was thrilled! The blogging world is such an amazing tool to connect world-wide with people with similar situations, mindsets, and goals and I am especially excited that she’s joining in on the fun! I co-operate Those Young Moms with my best friend, Franki Arnold and we both feel that our blog has been one of the most important additions to our parenting lives.

The saying “it takes a village to raise a child” has always meant a lot to Franki and I. Both being young mothers, we were eager to read and know as much about pregnancy, childbirth, and mothering as we could before we gave birth to our girls. Mom blogs, online forums, and parenting sites proved to be an indispensable source of information for us as well as that extra support we needed during our transitional time into full-on motherhood. We bookmarked, shared, and copy-pasted our way into forming ideas about crafts, recipes, parenting skills, and general advice. The internet opened doors to a side of parenting that we wouldn’t have otherwise thought of. Not only did we use the internet for tips and tricks, but we used it to build a genuine lifelong friendship.

When we were younger, Franki and I went to the same high school. The strange part was that we were barely acquaintances — we knew of each other, were even on the cheerleading squad together, but we didn’t talk. Fast forward years later, Franki had moved back to Canada, I was living in Orange County, and somehow we became friends on Facebook. When I became unexpectedly pregnant in 2010, I was in need of support and the amount of friends I had that had gone through something similar, was slim to none. I turned to Facebook where I had seen Franki’s posts about her daughter (Franki became unexpectedly pregnant in 2007 at 21) and asked for resources and emotional guidance. Since then, we have grown to be close friends (the first time we met-up in person, I was a bridesmaid in her wedding!), and the bond is still strong as our girls are growing up. This is something I love about motherhood and parenthood. It brings people together over this common bond we have: sinking and swimming through raising our children.

As we were sifting through websites, resources, and blogs, we realized that many of them were not directed towards mothers in their early 20′s (especially young single mothers), so we wanted to start one that gives a twenty-something perspective. We’re young, but we have opinions. We have our own experiences; we just met our children a bit earlier than others. In addition, our constant bookmarking, copy/pasting, and sharing of tips we found over the web and in our own lives guided us to make a one-stop-shop for parenting help.

Our blog contains recipes, lifestyle tips, products, DIY tips, craft ideas, personal stories, and a plethora of links to help in almost every situation. Personally, one of my main goals in creating the blog was to be a voice for other young single mothers; to show that we are capable, strong, and can achieve what we set to achieve. I wanted to share my budget-friendly ideas for toys, crafting, healthy and easy recipes, and engaging activities as well as share my personal story’s ups and downs.

We are two young moms, on two different paths, taking motherhood one healthy-earthy-chic-and funny step at a time! Hope to you connect with you soon!