When we sat down to introduce our new magazine, we realized it would be easy to slide into the tradition of comparing a creation of the mind to the creation of a child. "Ah," we might intone, "our baby was conceived in passion and spent many long months in careful gestation. Towards the end, there were many sleepless nights. The labor was rough. But," we'd sigh, "when they placed that first precious issue into our hands, we saw that it was all worth it . . ."
On second thought . . . no. Motherhood is more than a cute metaphor. And a magazine is nothing like a child. A magazine doesn't try to put bits of American cheese in the VCR. A magazine doesn't make that beautiful sleeping child face. A magazine doesn't worry you with a high fever. A magazine doesn't neck on your couch.
Like our real children, however, Brain, Child is a creation we're proud of. Here's why:
Brain, Child treats motherhood as a subject worthy of literature. And in the best tradition of literature, it celebrates the diversity of mothers and their styles. Our essays and features address readers as thinking individuals, not just medicine- dispensing, food-fixing, boo-boo-kissing mommies. We think of it this way: When our mothers wanted to hash over the important stuff with their girlfriends, they'd say to us, "Honey, the grown-ups are talking." Brain, Child is like that: the place where grown-ups are talking.
Brain, Child cuts past a lot of the bull to get to the voices that are truest -- not experts, but women who are or have been there. We gave Brain, Child the subtitle "The Magazine for Thinking Mothers," but it could just as easily have been "Motherhood The Way It Really Is." Our writers bring a down-to-earth perspective to traditional and not-so-traditional parenting subjects. And they're willing to address the big questions -- our evolving identities as mothers, for instance, or what we're teaching the next generation.
Brain, Child is a community, although we're wary of the term. (It's not, for instance, the kind of community where everyone sits around and sings friendship songs while secretly hating each other. Or the kind of community where women with nothing else in common compete in the baby-with-the-earliest-tooth or teen-with-the-tidiest-hair contest.) You know that friend you call when you're upset and just the sound of her voice calms you? You know those friends you go out to dinner with and stay long after dessert, talking and laughing, until the waiter kicks you out? It's that kind of community.
We aim to be down-to-earth, literary, commonsensical, neither too establishment nor too crunchy, funny, poignant, honest, respectful, irreverent, relevant, intelligent. We don't have any particular agenda, except to support thought and debate on topics of interest to mothers.
Each issue of Brain, Child is packed with personal essays, in-depth features, a debate, a parody, fiction, and words from you: our community, our readers. Visit our table of contents to see what we mean.
-Stephanie and Jennifer
