20th Year Celebration

New Year
New Magazine
New Website
New Resolutions and Goals

Another new year is well underway. It has brought with it the opportunity to begin fresh. No doubt 2011 will be a year with endless possibilities!

“A makeover shouldn’t turn you into someone else – it should lead to a better you.” Opra Winfrey

When we started planning our January 2011 issue, we decided to make some changes. 2011 is the year in which we celebrate our 20th year of publishing FAMILY, and it gives us a great opportunity to switch things up a bit. In preparation for this January’s issue, we let our imaginations run wild to change and redesign the look and focus of FAMILY Magazine. What you will read is a brand-new, terrifically improved, completely redesigned magazine, yet still geared towards helping you on your journey of parenting.

http://www.server-jbmultimedia.net/WAFamilyMagazine/sitebase/index.aspx?adgroupid=193954&view=double&fh=635

Not only did we change the print magazine, we have also enhanced our website (whew!). Please visit and enjoy our new easy-to-use search engine and improved layout. You will find it easier than ever to locate resources to help you raise your children.

On the heels of our twentieth anniversary, we are simplifying our look, focusing in on the issues you care most about and adding more to the two sides of motherhood – the mother and the woman. Our focus is helping you find what you need, discover what you want or achieve your goals with ease, while still providing you with the resources you need to raise your family in the crazy Washington, DC area.

As Heidi Smith Luedtke so eloquently says in her article this month, Living Your Life’s Dream, “Time may pass slowly on any given day. It is the weeks, months, and years that whiz by.” Twenty years have passed since my dream to create FAMILY Magazine began. Just recently, I met a woman who was a fellow Brownie leader with me when I first tried out the idea of creating a local resource for moms. We reminisced about discussing FAMILY before it launched, and her pride in knowing she had influenced that very first issue.

In the first issue of FAMILY Magazine, I did not have an article or letter to our readers. It did not occur to me that other moms would want to know about the people who created this publication. Since then, I have discovered that you do enjoy connecting with those who create FAMILY Magazine and indeed our shared experience of parenting is a great connection. During 2011, we will go back and revisit the experiences of FAMILY Magazine over the last two decades. It will be fun to explore how we’ve grown over the years together.

Do you have memories of twenty years ago? Come join us on our Facebook page and share with other moms what you remember from the beginnings of Washington FAMILY Magazine. We would truly love to hear your memories.

Parenting is all consuming, but it brings with it the satisfaction of creating a life. Our own needs and desires are sometimes put on a back burner while we raise our kids. I hope that you will read this issue of FAMILY Magazine and find enjoyment putting yourself first for just a moment. The laundry can wait and sandwiches for dinner won’t be the end of the world. Spend a little “mommy time” this New Year rewarding yourself for the incredible impact you’ve made on your family. After all, you deserve it.

Happy 2011 and I look forward to sharing memories with you all year long.

Happy Parenting, Brenda


Triva from 20 Years Ago:
Circulation of the first FAMILY Magazine was 18,000. The “paper,” as it was known then, was delivered to homes in areas of Northern Virginia where families with young children lived. By the end of the very first year, the circulation grew to 50,000. In 1994, FAMILY increased its distribution to parents in Maryland and DC. Four years later, we were the largest parenting publication on the East Coast. Today, FAMILY can be found in over 2900 locations where moms go with their kids throughout the Washington, DC Metro area.