A lifestyle site for modern mothers, featuring stories of stepparenting, adoption, foster care, surrogacy, and non-traditional families.
"My goal is to create the resource and community I wish I had when I was new to stepparenting and adoption."
Jessica Butler is the creator of Raise Magazine, stepmother of two, and adoptive mother of one. Prior to Raise, she was a writer on USA’s In Plain Sight and TNT’s The Last Ship. She and her husband, writer/producer Warren Bell, co-created the Nick at Nite series Instant Mom, based on her life as a stepmother. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and five-year-old son, Levon.
One in 10 children lives with a non-biological parent.
of women in America have a step relationship — a stepchild, stepparent, or step or half sibling
children live in blended families
children are adopted
children are in foster care
LGBT women are raising a child
children lives with a solo mother
OUR READERS
87%
Female
81%
American
64%
Age 25 – 44
STEPMOMS
Navigating marriage, instant motherhood, and co-parenting all at once. Newly blended families. Women with stepparents and step siblings of their own. 44% of women in America have a stepchild, stepparent, or step or half sibling.
ADOPTIVE MOMS
Hopeful and current adoptive mamas navigating open and closed adoptions, interracial and kinship adoptions, and the day-to-day challenges of raising an adopted child. 1.5 million children in the United States are adopted.
FOSTER MAMAS
Those fostering to adopt, and those fostering the family with the goal of reunification. Nearly a half million children are currently in foster care.
SINGLE MOMS
Single moms by choice, women navigating divorce and co-parenting, and mamas parenting solo after the loss of a spouse. Women juggling work and motherhood and moms re-entering the dating game. 1 in 5 children live with a solo mother.
INFERTILITY WARRIORS
Mothers of families built through IVF, egg & sperm donation, embryo adoption, and surrogacy. Over 7 million women in the U.S. are affected by infertility.
LGBT PARENTS
More than 4 million LGBT women in America are raising a child. Same-sex couples are six times more likely to foster children, and four times more likely to adopt. A 2019 study found that 30.4% of foster youth identify as LGBTQ, and foster youth are twice as likely to identify as LGBTQ than youth living outside foster care.
EVERYONE IN BETWEEN
Women raising grandchildren, siblings, family members, or family friends. More than 7 million grandparents live with their grandchildren, and one-third serve as their grandchildren’s primary care giver.