Neighborhood Spotlight Series 8

June 12, 2022

Neighborhood

Spotlight Series:

Barrett & Sonja

Mamamoods

Hello Neighbor!

I have many fond memories growing up (pre-kindergarten) and lying on the carpet in front of the TV in my childhood home, my unicorn (“Uni”) in one hand and an apple juice in the other, watching Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood as my mom was in the kitchen either cooking or tidying up the house and my sister was at school. I LOVED everything about that show. Being that I was a very hyperactive kid there was always a certain calm that came over me while watching it. I loved how Mr. Rogers would get frequent visits from the postman and other folks in his neighborhood. At a young age this small detail instilled in me the belief that being part of a strong community is so important.

Flash forward to today, we are now lucky enough to have our office in sunny Los Angeles, which is such a treat! There’s so much talent bubbling in our own close-knit neighborhood, and in the spirit of Mr. Rogers’ spotlighting everyday standouts I thought it would be fun to introduce you to some of the friends in our Los Angeles neighborhood and give you a peek inside their creative worlds. We hope you are as inspired by these incredible women as we are!

-Laura ODell

Get to know Barrett & Sonja:

1. Tell us a little bit about Mamamoods and how you both came to the conclusion that you wanted to start it together.

Mamamoods is a lifestyle brand inspired by all the moods that parents feel. As you know, motherhood is so many things... it's powerful and profound, it's exhilarating and exhausting, it's magical and life changing, and it is really, really hard. We wanted to celebrate all of this and create a place of connection and community for moms as they navigate the wild ride that is parenthood. When Sonja and I became friends, so much of our time together was spent talking about our kids and what we were personally going through in the new role as parents. Eventually, that conversation turned into this idea of starting a brand together.(Barrett)

2. What are some things we can expect to see from Mamamoods in the future?

We are really excited about creating an inclusive and supportive community. There are so many stories to share and we look forward to being a place where women can connect and hopefully find comfort in knowing other people are going through similar things too.(Barrett)

3. Cocktail or coffee? If you could only pick one.

Coffee 100%. Especially with three! I definitely don't think I could survive without that caffeine. (Barrett)

4. What's the best parent hack you've learned over the years that you can share?

The parent hack we couldn't have survived without is one we learned in the 2nd month of our son's life. It saved us both emotionally and physically. Once the doctor gave us the thumbs up, and his weight was healthy enough, we sleep-trained by letting him "cry it out". It was hard; I had to leave our apartment because I would have caved and gone in the room continuously, but my husband was strong, and after 2 nights and a total of 90 minutes of crying - we were done - and he's slept beautifully ever since :). (Sonja)

5. If you could teleport to anywhere in the world for 3 hours where would you go and what would you do with that allotted time?

This is SO specific. Here it goes. I'd teleport to San Fruttuoso, Italy. Behind the monastery, there is a little restaurant called De Laure. Mom's cooking in the kitchen. She's cooking the best pesto you ever ate. I'm sipping on a cold glass of Massaretti Pigato wine and then wander down and dip my toes in the clear blue Ligurian Sea. (Sonja)

6. What's the one thing you've found that most kids will eat without complaining about?

Only two items haven't gone out of style for my 7-year-old son's culinary palette; everything else goes in phases, and it's been hard to keep up! Since he was 3, he's never complained about corndogs or arugula w/balsamic. Yes, they must be the Applegate corndogs, and the balsamic needs to be the sweet syrupy kind, while the arugula must be super fresh; the spicy kind :) He also wouldn't be caught complaining about potato chips and starbursts, duh!(Sonja)