Meet Trailblazer Whitney Cicero

So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I started my blog, The New Stepford, after my second child which led to a brief, sultry affair with postpartum depression. We broke up, but I’m not going to lie, there are some scars. He still tries to slide into my DMs on occasion even though I’ve blocked him. He’s such a dick.

I met a filmmaker when I was in San Francisco named Laura Van Zee Taylor and she suggested I start turning my blogs into videos. It was so much fun; I immediately fell in love with social video.

I’ve been creating social videos for about 7 years now. I’ve been awarded Best of Video by BlogHer and been featured on the Today Show, Fox News, Today Parents, PopSugar, Scary Mommy, Yahoo, Now This, LADBible, That’s Viral, and Delish. The last video I did where I lip synced my son playing Fortnite has over 25 million views.

Today I continue to create daily original content for The New Stepford Facebook and Instagram channels. I suck at Twitter, and Snapchat makes me feel old and incompetent so I avoid that altogether. Maybe my 14-year-old daughter can show me how to use it someday.

Has it been a smooth road?
I think the biggest challenge of a social influencer is keeping atop the changing algorithms of the platforms. One year it’s all about posting multiple times a day, the next year it’s about less frequent but more engaging content.

Some of the struggles early on were brands only wanted to talk to influencers with large follower bases which resulted in influencers buying followers. Their followers went up but their engagement went down. The industry reacted to that and the following year brands were only wanting to work with influencers with high engagement rates which led to a boom of the micro-influencer market. Which was great for me because I’m considered a micro-influencer because I have less than 100K followers.

Currently Facebook is focusing on Live video so most influencers I know are flexing into that.

The imperative piece of advice for new influencers is you must have a unique voice. You must see and articulate the world through your own lens that is different than everyone else’s. People with honest, unique point of views will rise to the top.

We’d love to hear more about The New Stepford.
I’m in good company with the other women you have featured on your page and I’m honored to be here.

The New Stepford is considered the SouthPark of Mommy Blogs, an online community of parents that like to drink and laugh and have irreverent senses of humor. If you are all Pinterest and organic and all wooden toys these aren’t your people.

My goal is trying and make you laugh once a day. That when you come to my pages you know you will get a smile on your face. I want people to know that parenting is tough, it’s okay to be exhausted and okay to think your kids are assholes sometimes. That’s normal!

I’m so proud of the community we have built online. On Monday, December 10th I did a Facebook Live of all the products, podcasts, and small businesses that people in my community have built. I do it every holiday season to showcase the amazing things that people are doing in the community. The last two years people have just posted in the comments section but this year they are sending me their wares so we can do a live show and tell. It was really exciting.

So much of the media coverage is focused on the challenges facing women today, but what about the opportunities? Do you feel there are any opportunities that women are particularly well positioned for?
If you look at the recent mid-term election, I’m inspired about the number of women that ran and those that got elected. They are moving the needle in terms of getting equal voice in our democracy. I couldn’t be prouder of those women. I, of course, could never run because my all-time favorite meme is “Every time you yawn a ghost puts his dick in your mouth.” I don’t think I’m suited for public office.

Pricing:

• I created my first merch based on the notes I would write on my kids lunch bags. They were passive aggressive and pretty funny. My daughter liked them and told me to start posting them on Instagram. I did and people started asking where to buy them. I couldn’t believe it as they were just brown paper bags with sharpie notes but people really wanted them so I launched PassiveAggressiveLunchBags.com and sell a 10-pack for $12.99. We keep selling out!