Thread by @designmom

I’ve noticed some new followers and want to say a quick hello and introduce myself — with links to a few threads you might enjoy. (Thread links are first, more personal stuff is at the end.)

I mostly use Twitter to amplify other voices I appreciate, but sometimes I write threads. The first one I ever wrote is about how irresponsible ejaculations cause all unwanted pregnancies. It was written in Sept 2018, and is still my pinned tweet.

https://twitter.com/designmom/status/1040363431893725184

The most recent one is about gun worship and what it means to protect your family.

https://twitter.com/designmom/status/1225052129238421505

Here’s one where I talk about growing up in a gun-loving town, and how I've always tried to be supportive of gun rights, but have concluded that gun-owners and gun advocates are going to bring on a gun ban due to their sheer inaction and ridiculousness.

https://twitter.com/designmom/status/1195074094909313025

Here’s one about domestic violence and Traumatic Brain Injuries. You should definitely read this one. It’s short but I don’t think the data is well known and it’s incredibly disturbing data.

https://twitter.com/designmom/status/1179035918952366080

Here’s a short one with gun suicide stats and references. If you want to discuss or debate how guns make homes less safe, you’ll want to understand this information.

https://twitter.com/designmom/status/1195082761406730241

I have six kids — Ralph, Maude, Olive, Oscar, Betty, and Flora June. I’ve been married to @BenBlair for 24 years. I have a BFA in graphic design and I started using the handle @DesignMom in 2006 when I was living in New York and working as an advertising art director.

Here are photos of my family in 2009 and 2019 at Central Park. (Note that in 2009, there were only 5 kids.)

I’ve been blogging at DesignMom-dot-com for over 13 years. The blog covers a wide variety of topics and hosts some of the best parenting conversations on the web. For example, here’s a post about sex ed for college students who never got sex ed.

designmom.com/teaching-kids-…

Here’s a post about our public high school in Oakland, which we loved, and which is rated a 2/10 on Great Schools.

designmom.com/public-high-sc…

Every Tuesday I share a home tour. It’s a beloved series and full of parenting wisdom from Design Mom Readers. One time the home we toured was the U.S. space station with Karen Nyberg - @AstroKarenN.

designmom.com/living-with-ki…

A cool thing is that even when discussing tricky topics (like MLMs), the comment section on Design Mom remains remarkably sane and reasonable. Design Mom Readers are truly the best.

designmom.com/mlms-ever-ende…

I wrote a NYT bestseller called Design Mom: How To Live With Kids. It’s half parenting topics, half interior design topics — they overlap more than you think.

designmom.com/living-with-ki…

I co-founded a conference in 2009 called Altitude Design Summit — the 16th Alt Summit (as it's commonly known) is coming up in March. A key mission in my life is amplifying women’s voices, and All Summit is one of the ways I do that.

altitudesummit.com

Because of Alt Summit, I’ve been able to interview lots of amazing people, both at my conference and at other conferences, like @JoannaGaines, @MarthaStewart, @JessicaAlba, @8en, @SamanthaJPower, and @RitaWilson,. I’ll be interviewing @SoledadOBrien in March and I can not wait.

@joannagaines @MarthaStewart @jessicaalba @8en @SamanthaJPower @RitaWilson @soledadobrien A couple more things about me. After 8 years in New York, we moved to Colorado for 1 1/2 years, then to France for 2 1/2 years, then to Oakland for 6 years, and we recently moved back to France. We live in Normandy, about 2 hours west of Paris. It's gorgeous here.

We bought a house here in France that was built in the 1700s and we’re renovating it. You can follow along with the renovations on Instagram (I'm @designmom there too), or the blog.

designmom.com/st-martin-hous…

I’m a Mormon. And all of my moms think you are great.

Unrelated to my religion, I sometimes I change my hair.

And lastly, a brief intro to my kids:

.@astroralph lived in France for 3 years, Colombia for two, and speaks fluent Spanish and French. Ralph is really good at talking to people of all ages. He’s made movies since he was a tiny kid and they are rad. His most recent film is called Sea Chub:

@astroralph .@mimiblair is in her junior year at Berkeley. She’s studying English. A good portion of her fellow students believe Maude is their best friend. She writes very funny tweets but her account is private so bummer for you. She moved to Paris on her own for a year when she was 17.

@astroralph @mimiblair .@oliveblair's 2019 goal: watch 365 films. She made it to 409. She’s currently applying to film programs, and skipping her senior year. She graduated early and moved to Montpellier (South of France) to au pair. At age 15, she saved up and bought herself an @OscardelaRenta dress.

@astroralph @mimiblair @oliveblair @OscardelaRenta Oscar plays the trumpet and finished 8th grade in Oakland as a valedictorian. Now he goes to a local French school where he’s the top of his class in math, but the bottom of his class in French. (Learning a new language is hard!) Oscar loves D&D and is a self-taught shark expert.

Betty plays the clarinet. When we lived here before, she was age 4-6, and became perfectly fluent. After 6 years in Oakland, she lost most of it, and has been relearning. But the locals say her accent is still flawless. You should be jealous of Betty's collection of journals.

Flora June prefers to go by Flora in French, and June in English. She didn't speak a word of French when she started school here in Sept. Happily she makes friends easily, language barrier be damned. Everyday as she walks to school, she picks up a pain au chocolat at the bakery.