How Fridababy CEO Chelsea Hirschhorn Navigates Messy Motherhood Moments

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Photos via Tami Jill

Miami mama Chelsea Hirschhorn is the Chief Executive Officer of Fridababy, a company best-known for a product called NoseFrida, or she lovingly refers to it, "The Snotsucker." Upon seeing the fashionable mother of two, it might be hard to imagine that Hirschhorn doing anything as decidedly unglamorous as — quite literally — sucking the snot out of her little ones' noses, but that dichotomy is exactly what we love most about this businesswoman. Both she and her brand are not afraid to confront the less "Instagram-worthy" moments of motherhood and offer practical solutions. 

When Chelsea isn't running a baby business beloved by celebrities (Molly Sims, Jenny Mollen) and influencers alike, she's spending quality time with her young sons, Hunter and Jaxson. And while she's careful not to make that look easy, we can't help admire the career and life she's created for herself. That said, we took some time out to ask the mega successful mom — and Fashion Mamas Miami ambassador — about why it's important to showcase the messier moments of motherhood, how she keeps her kids happy, and how being a parent has changed her career. 

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How did becoming a mom change your career?

I'm far more efficient and selective with my time and scheduling, and I've become an expert "prioritizer" — I'm able to discern what on my ever-growing to-do list needs to be done first, and organize my day so that those things get checked off. Motherhood also gave me a bit of a "Sixth Sense" intuition as far as understanding how I can improve the less than Instagram-worthy parts of parenthood for other parents with simple, innovative solutions to fairly common baby and mom-care problems that no one else was addressing.

We love Fridababy's no-frills approach to problem solving a lot of standard, decidedly not glamorous aspects of raising kids. Why was it important to you to represent that side of things?

There are a lot of incredibly satisfying aspects of embracing the "mom" title for the first time, but there are also a lot of intimidating realities to parenthood that don't get the spotlight, partly because they're so awful I'm convinced we quickly forget they even happened (like postpartum bleeding for two weeks!). I view Fridababy's role as stepping in on the details that your best friend (very innocently) left out, and then giving you the tools to tackle those realities. Although now more and more parents are sporting the Frida badge of honor and are super proud to share their hero moments, so maybe we're helping insert some of these issues into the conversation — which is a big win! Our mission is simply to make sure parents are more prepared than when we found them by creating simple, innovative solutions to the everyday challenges we all face.

Fill in this sentence, when all else fails to make my kids happy, I __________.

Put down my phone! 

All that said, you're still awfully stylish. Do you have a fashion philosophy?

Nothing is better than the wrong thing — but that's my philosophy for pretty much everything, thanks to my mom! Whether it's an outfit or accessory, decorating my home, or hiring for my Fridababy team, etc. What women wear is how we present ourselves and how we want to be perceived, especially in a world where first impressions are quickly made on appearances. That said, I try to curate my wardrobe to reflect how I want to be taken depending on the context, but really to accommodate the variety of situations I find myself dressing for in a given week. The boardroom looks a lot different than the little league sideline! 

How about a parenting philosophy?

I think I'm still refining my personal parenting philosophy, but I know it will be some combination of "done is better than perfect" and the importance of being 110% present, which is incredibly challenging when the demands on my time are as comprehensive as they are. The first part speaks to my super Type-A personality and the importance of realizing that there are some things that just need to be checked off the list to move the ball down the field, and that's a departure for me. It's a work in progress.