• by Melynda Fuller , April 17, 2019

Arianna Huffington is expanding her media empire with the launch of Is This Normal, in partnership with organic baby-food company Little Spoon and her health and wellness startup, Thrive Global.

Is This Normal provides content meant to lighten the burden for parents of all stripes. Today, 80% of new parents are millennials.

The idea sprung from the wealth of questions reaching Little Spoon’s customer care team, usually related to topics that went beyond the contents of their shipment.

“We realized our care channel became an outlet to dump the ‘uncomfy thoughts.’ The raw, unfiltered, no-one-is-going-to-hear-this-anyway-so-let-me-get-it-off-my-chest stuff,” Lisa Barnett, Little Food cofounder-CMO, told Publishers Daily.

“We decided to build our Is This Normal platform to help all the new parents out there navigate the crazy new normals of this life stage and make everyone feel a little bit more comfortable — wherever they are at in this journey.”

Barnett describes Is This Normal’s content as “part advice column and part storytelling,” with the goal of facilitating “these conversations and touching on the topics still ‘taboo’ in the parenting world.”

With the launch of Is This Normal, the hub engaged more than 50 parents across its community, including those associated with Little Spoon and well-known cultural figures, like Bobbi Brown, Marie Claire EIC Anne Fulenwider and founder of The Glow Violet Gaynor.

Experts will also be employed to write advice columns and answer reader questions, ranging from body issues to emotional states to relationships and darker feelings parents are uncomfortable sharing with friends.

Topics of coverage will be aligned with Thrive Global’s focus, but will be commissioned and edited by Little Spoon.

The platform will live on both isthisnormal.co and ThriveGlobal.com and link from LittleSpoon.com. Is This Normal will also maintain social platforms across all parties.