History: Then and Now

Babble was launched in December by Nerve Media, the people behind Nerve

Nerve (website)

Nerve is an American online magazine dedicated to sex, relationships and culture. Founded by Rufus Griscom and Genevieve Field, it publishes articles and photography. It also hosts blogs, forums, and a section for personal advertisements. Nerve's CEO is Sean Mills...

, a popular online sex magazine. After one year, the site has grown to half a million readers per month. Babble Media was spun off as an independent company in 2009, and was acquired by Disney Interactive Media Group

Disney Interactive Media Group

The Disney Interactive Media Group , formerly known as the Walt Disney Internet Group and Disney Interactive Studios, oversees various websites and interactive media owned by The Walt Disney Company and its subsidiaries....

 in 2011.

Mission statement

"To tell the truth about parenting, to bypass the clichés and dig into the magical and maddening reality. Our commitment to readers is to explore the world of parenting on a daily basis with ruthless honesty, and with the humor and lyricism natural to the subject."

Website Features

Babble content is divided into seven sections.

1. The Columns section includes: editor's note, bad parent, parental advisory, notes from a non-breeder, psychic nanny, infant industry, street fashion, gadget inspector, and field trip.
2. The Features section includes: babble best, personal essays, celebrity interviews, how we live, and special issues.
3. The Health and Development section includes: forums for topics and questions about pregnancy, newborns, infants, and toddlers, as well as columns (including cribsheet and pediatrician poll), and polls.
4. The Fashion and Products section includes: Babble gift guides, featured products, searches, columns (including professor product, design with david netto, and face off), and polls.
5. The Entertainment and Travel section includes: reviews of films and other kid stuff, Babble Guide to Grown-up Fare, columns (including travel columns), and searches.
6. The Video section includes: featured popular videos, columns (including found video, rock n roll mamas, and tv time capsule), and video contests.
7. The Blogs section features blogs, including strollerderby, band on the diaper run, political nanny, fame crawler, and drool.icio.us, as well as personal blogs, including knocked up, baby squared, and baby daddy.

Criticism

Although the website has won praise from some, it has also been criticized, for example, by Time Magazine, who accuse it of focusing too heavily on a hipster aesthetic that is exploitative of the actual children, commenting that "being a unique, creative individual through your kids that's disturbing."

Notable Contributors

• Greg Allen
  Greg Allen
  Greg Allen was an Australian rugby league player for the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks in the New South Wales Rugby League competition...
  
  
• Steve Almond
  Steve Almond
  Steve Almond is an American short story writer and essayist. He is the author of eight books.-Life:He was raised in Palo Alto, California, and graduated from Henry M. Gunn High School. He received his undergraduate degree from Wesleyan University. He spent seven years as a newspaper reporter,...
  
  
• Lisa Armstrong
  Lisa Armstrong
  Lisa Marie Armstrong is a former member of pop band Deuce and now make-up expert for ITV1's programme This Morning.-Personal life:...
  
  
• Shalom Auslander
  Shalom Auslander
  Shalom Auslander is an American author and essayist. He grew up in an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood in Monsey, New York where he describes himself as having been "raised like a veal". His writing style is notable for its Jewish perspective and determinedly negative outlook...
  
  
• Jennifer Baumgardner
  Jennifer Baumgardner
  Jennifer Baumgardner is an author, filmmaker, and third-wave feminist activist.-Early and personal life:Baumgardner grew up in Fargo, North Dakota and attended Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin, graduating in 1992...
  
  
• Lily Burana
  Lily Burana
  Lily Burana is an American writer whose publications include the memoir I Love a Man in Uniform , the novel Try Lily Burana is an American writer whose publications include the memoir I Love a Man in Uniform (Weinstein Books, 2009), the novel Try Lily Burana is an American writer whose publications...