Being a parent can be scary. There are so many unknowns, and you want to do the best for your baby.
However, there are typically not that many alternatives out there that give you the information you need when you need it.
Enter Babypalooza.
This is a brand that helps new parents to adjust to their new lives with their babies. The company has been around for a while.
Its founder, Cecilia Pearson, created it way back in 2005. At the time, it was a magazine.
Pearson’s goal for the company was to act as a guide for new dads and moms as they became parents.
Over time, Babypalooza has evolved to include virtual and in-person baby expos, a hub of fellow moms, crucial resources, and helpful products. It has basically become a community.
Some of the details you can find on Babypalooza include baby crib safety tips, information on breastfeeding, and how to talk to kids about race.
The platform also has upcoming events for its members, like traveling with baby product picks, and how to sleep more while breastfeeding.
Pearson is the latest in a long line of bold businesswomen.
They include her mother and other women within her family. These women became the angel investors for Babypalooza when it was just starting out.
They basically helped Pearson to realize her dream through both sweat equity and monetary support.
That said, it hasn’t been a smooth ride for Pearson.
As a Black woman business owner, she has faced more financial hardships than the average entrepreneur.
She revealed that according to rates and statistics, Black female business founders typically get very little venture capital dollars.
Her solution for this is to get a larger number of founders who are ready to invest in Black women. Black women entrepreneurs also don’t all have to be young.
Pearson is also encouraging Black business owners to seek funding so they can partake in business accelerator programs.
Recently, Pearson herself got $50,000 from Bronze Valley to help her increase the scale of her brand. She was also chosen to be a part of Innovation Depot’s Velocity Accelerator.
What Babypalooza’s Virtual Baby Expos Offers Parents
And through it all, her focus has remained on creating a system that makes motherhood easier for new moms—especially amid the pandemic.
Babypalooza’s oh-so helpful Baby Expos went virtual in 2020 which made resources more accessible to moms far and wide.
The app featured live videos of everything, from baby product demonstrations to health workshops, and even allowed parents to connect with each other as a way to better build support and community.
In an interview with Essence, Pearson explained why it was so important for her to assist parents from all walks of life with the support they needed:
“My mother and many other women in my family are ride-or-dies and helped me realize my dream through both monetary support or sweat equity.” She continues, ““In my hometown of Birmingham, Alabama, I’d see women with new babies and just thought about how important it is for them to tap into the information and support they truly need.”
And equally important, Pearson feels that black women as a whole need more support starting programs like this, as well as their own businesses in general—citing that younger women get more backing than their older counterparts:
“The answer to that is to have more founders that are willing to invest in Black females, and they don’t have to be young,” she added.
“I think that’s part of our problem; we feel like everybody has to be specifically young. I’d also like to be able to invest in them.”
Whether helping parents with Babypalooza or just offering advice to other entrepreneurs, Cecilia Pearson has made it her goal to be a light in the world—and a bright one.
