This Baby Book ‘Teaches’ New Borns How to Care For Themselves When Parents Go Back to Work

Thanks to America’s lack of a federal paid leave policy, one in four American women have had to return to work within just two weeks after giving birth. Which means if our nation is unwilling to give new parents the time to raise their new-borns, then we should help those new-borns become independent adults today.

Created in partnership between Paid Leave for All, Glamour, Mother and Hornet, 'Get Your Sh*t Together, Baby' is a new public awareness campaign featuring a series of satirical kinesthetic baby books. The books 'teach' new-borns everything they need to care for themselves when their parents have been forced back to work, including how to boil water for their own bottle and how to go into debt to pay for their own care. 

The spot was helmed by Hornet director Natalie Labarre, whose unique experience designing engaging children's books as well as sophisticated, graphic 2D animation brought this work to the next level and expanded on potential for interactivity within the books. 

Of course a two-week old baby isn't going to learn to cook, but the issue is no less ridiculous. 

Dawn Huckelbridge, director, Paid Leave for All, commented, “Every one of us will need to give or receive care in our lives, and paid leave is one of the most impactful and popular policies in the country. The fact that we still don't have it in the United States is not funny, it's tragic. But we want to break through the noise of Washington with comedy, with storytelling, with anger, and with optimism, and this partnership with Glamour aims to do that at a scale we haven't reached before. The good news is America came within inches of passing paid leave not long ago, and this partnership grew out of our shared passion and goal to finish the job. We plan to harness that momentum and win for working families." 

To coincide with the 30th anniversary of the Family and Medical Leave Act, the series of books will be read as story time across Glamour.com, Instagram and TikTok by noteworthy comedians, actors, television hosts and parents, including Jenna Dewan, Karamo Brown, Kelly McCreary, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Stephanie Beatriz, Catherine Reitman, June Diane Raphael, Lisa Ann Walter and Samantha Bee. 

Surrounding the readings, the book series will be promoted with digital display, video, audio, and print ads across Condé Nast titles, as well as an out-of-home takeover in Times Square, all starting Monday, April 24th. 

These books seek to encourage Americans to turn their anger into action by signing the petition hosted on the website to help #passpaidleave once and for all. 

Natasha Pearlman, executive editor, Glamour, said, “America's lack of paid leave is no laughing matter and Glamour and Paid Leave for All are united in our determination to highlight the absurdity of not supporting families in their time of greatest need and the very real consequences of this policy failure. Glamour and Paid Leave for All came together through Glamour's award-winning '28 Days in the Lives of Women Postpartum', to shed light on the harsh reality of life without paid leave in America. Working parents and families in America shouldn't have to accept this appalling status quo, and we hope this campaign ignites a national conversation that those in power can no longer ignore."

Jesse Unger, head of strategy at Mother in Los Angeles added, “You can’t be an agency called Mother and not dive heart-first into a project fighting for federal paid leave if given the opportunity. We’re so grateful Glamour and Paid Leave For All trusted us to push the boundaries and stir up noise around something that frankly shouldn’t even be a conversation - yet it is, and parents (and children) deserve better. Mother is on a mission to build an agency that makes our children proud and that means using our creative problem solving to affect policy change whenever we can.”

Natalie Labarre, director said, “The writing and overall concept from the agency were so strong, it just made us want to get started on helping them develop the visuals for it right away. And I just so happen to have a masters in children’s book illustration, so it was meant to be. It’s pretty rare to have a chance to flex the super specific techniques I acquired from grad school so I was thrilled to pull those out of the hat.”

“In short, the goal was to make these as engaging as possible to keep you turning the page and get the message out. Throughout this process, from making the books as a team to watching people react to the campaign, I was not expecting how many conversations the project would trigger about how this has affected people. I can’t stop reading the comments online, story after story - makes you so mad and in awe of how strong people are, but they shouldn’t have to be. I’m just super grateful to have been able to join a lovely group of people who feel the same way and put a lot of love into this work.