Gift Guides - Cool Mom Picks

This brilliant classroom activity for Valentine’s Day makes everyone feel the love.

Trying to find classroom activities for Valentine’s Day parties that are fun enough, cool enough, easy enough, and affordable enough isn’t a simple task. Plus, not every kid is comfortable with the “tell every kid in your class you love them”...

These no-carb dumplings on Etsy are perfect for your Valentine.

by Liz Gumbinner | Toys + Playthings, Valentine's Day

Happy year of the Rat everyone! With the Lunar New Year upon us, I’m so happy to find this adorable new Etsy shop, which celebrates all things dumplings. Only, not the edible kind, so if you’re low-carbing right now, you’re in luck. Christine Jee has...

Cool Galentine’s Day gift ideas for your BFF, Leslie Knope style

by Delilah S. Dawson | Valentine's Day

Galentine’s Day is February 13, and if you don’t know about it yet, prepare to become a fan. It was created by Amy Poehler’s Parks & Recreation character, Leslie Knope, to celebrate strong female friendships. In Leslie’s own words: Oh,...

The top 10 Cool Mom Picks posts of 2019

by Cool Mom Staff | Editors Best of the Year

We’re so thrilled to be entering our 14th year publishing Cool Mom Picks. We know! We can’t believe it either. Every year, we share our top 10 most visited posts on Cool Mom Picks. While our gift guides are often quite popular, these represent posts from...

Disney+ and the domination of our streaming overlords | Editors’ Best in 2019

by Cool Mom Staff | Editors Best of the Year

We’ve been streaming media for a few years now (and for some of us, even more), but in 2019, streaming went to a whole new level. And we’re not necessarily talking about Disney+ (but we also kind of are). If you’ve been following award nominations...

Baby Yoda | Editors’ Best of 2019

by Cool Mom Staff | Editors Best of the Year

Two words: Baby Yoda. He’s adorable and powerful, and exactly how we imagine a Baby Yoda would be if we had imagined it ourselves. (Spoiler: We didn’t). He’s a singular brilliant reason to become a Disney + subscriber so you get access to The...

The power and positivity of raising teens | Editors’ Best of 2019

by Cool Mom Staff | Editors Best of the Year

In the past, teenagers have had a reputation with parents that preceded them. Does the eyeroll emoji come to mind? Well in 2019, we saw the rise of an exciting movement that empowered parents raising teens to see them in all their awesome, creative, out-of-the-box...

The tech-positive parenting movement | Editors’ Best of 2019

by Cool Mom Staff | Editors Best of the Year

Even though we started Cool Mom Tech in 2010, this past year, we saw an exciting parenting trend emerge: tech-positive parenting. But considering how powerful this movement has been, I’m pretty sure that it’s a trend that’s going to be around for a...

The diversity of women taking over entertainment: Editors Best of the Year

by Liz Gumbinner | Editors Best of the Year, Entertainment + Media

It’s hard to even know where to start with this — each of these women could be their own Editors Best of the Year, but together, they’re even more powerful. And that’s saying something. We have to start somewhere, so, as we often do,...

Post-Hamilton Broadway for teens: Editors’ Best of the Year.

by Liz Gumbinner | Editors Best of the Year, Entertainment + Media

It’s no surprise to anyone who knows me or my kids that we are massive Broadway fans. We are so fortunate to live in The Greatest City in the World (name that tune), which allows us to see a lot of musicals. A lot. But my kids are hardly alone in asking for show...

Mattel’s Creatable World and other progress towards gender non-comformity and inclusivity: Editors Best of the Year

by Liz Gumbinner | Editors Best of the Year

it’s time for our annual Top 10 Editors Picks of the Year! To kick things off, I wanted to start with one of the biggest, most positive events that pops out to us as we reflect on 2019: the growing awareness of gender fluidity and gender identity, and the...

Greta Thunberg and youth climate activism: Editors Best of the Year

by Liz Gumbinner | Doing Good, Editors Best of the Year, Health, Fitness + Wellbeing

When we first started this site in 2006, eco-friendly was one of our most popular tags. Parents were concerned about where their products were made, what ingredients were in them, and how they impacted the planet. Then the recession hit. Suddenly no one wanted to pay...

Hi! We’re Kristen + Liz!

Kristen Chase + Liz Gumbinner of Cool Mom Picks

We started Cool Mom Picks in 2006 to help make life cooler, more meaningful, and more fun for parents of all kinds.

Trivia: It was called Cool Mom Sh*t for the first two days. (Yeah, we rethought that.)

We had no idea our site would grow to become a major lifestyle network, that we'd end up sharing our finds with the TODAY Show and Martha Stewart, that we'd be able to make a real difference for so many small businesses and women-run companies, or that we'd end up with an incredible community of the coolest readers on the planet. (If we do say so ourselves).

We still love what we do every single day. And we're so glad you're here.