PARSIPPANY -- Bradi Nathan gave up an advertising management job at Marie Claire to become a stay-at-home mother to her two children for eight years. Terry Starr twice returned to a lucrative career in recruitment marketing after just three months maternity leave when her two children were born.
Today, the two have partnered to offer mothers who take divergent paths to the office a place to meet and share their frustrations, challenges and successes.
The Livingston mothers launched the Parsippany-based myworkbutterfly.com in January, an online social networking and job search site for working mothers. Using their experience living on the opposite sides of the mommy wars, the 38-year-old Nathan and 50-year-old Starr have built an online site that seeks to address the needs of both kinds of working mothers -- those who never left the workplace and those seeking to re-enter after an extended leave.
The site -- free to use -- boasts a job board with 10,000 listings, an online career coach, a psychotherapist and interviews with celebrity moms who, despite their high-profile careers, can relate to the same mother's guilt about working while someone else watches their child.
"We're all mothers, we're all trying to do it all well," Nathan said. "We want this to be a rallying place for women helping and supporting other women."
Everything on the site relates to women's needs on their journeys from motherhood to work, they said.
With more than 300 pages of original content discussing everything from staying fit and beauty tips to finances and elder care, Starr and Nathan sought to offer mothers one site that fits all their needs.
Like butterflies, working mothers are often on the move, flitting from one responsibility to the next, and the site, Starr said, is meant to be a constant support system.
Within four months time, the site has 1,800 members, 36,000+ page views a month and is getting access to the likes of Kathie Lee Gifford, Malaak Compton Rock (comedian Chris Rock's wife) and Danielle Monaro, a radio DJ for New York's Z100. The three working mothers sat down for video interviews for the site.
This month features Monaro, who talks about how she wrestled with returning to work and leaving her 6-week-old son with a nanny.
She still feel pangs of guilt when she has to miss an important moment like her now 3-year-old son's Halloween parade.
"Why can't I be there," Monaro said. "Unfortunately I can't do it, I can't do everything."
Myworkbutterfly.com also caught the eye of the 12,000-member Business and Professional Women, a national women's advocacy and networking organization.
The organization was looking to partner with a social networking site in order to reach a younger generation, Blandford said.
BPW was attracted to the site Nathan and Starr created because it brings together a variety of resources, Blandford said.
"It supports mothers, women in transition and women looking for flexibility in their life," said Ayoka Blandford, spokeswoman for BPW.
Laura Bruno can be reached at (973) 428-6626 or lbruno@gannett.com
