‘Instant Mom’ Co-Creator Jessica Butler on Non-Traditional Families

Jessica Butler is the co-creator of the hit Nick at Nite series, "Instant Mom." She and her husband writer/producer Warren Bell created the show based on her experiences as a stepmother. She says she felt there was nothing on TV that represented how families can co-parent together. She also wanted to dispel the trope of the wicked stepmother, which does more harm to families than people realize. RaiseMagazine.com focuses on telling stories of non-traditional families. Butler is a stepmother of two sons, and an adoptive mom to one son and wanted to see her stories and other non-traditional stories represented online. So she launched Raise Magazine, a lifestyle site for modern mothers, featuring stories of stepparenting, adoption, foster care, surrogacy, and non-traditional families. Warren Bell and Jessica Butler co-created "Instant Mom" on Nick at Nite based on their family. Butler says she creates content for fellow stepmoms who are navigating a new marriage, instant motherhood, and co-parenting all at once, as well as for women who are stepdaughters themselves. A recent poll from Pew Research Center revealed that 44% of women in America -- nearly half -- have a step relationship. While most stepparenting sites cater solely to stepmoms, Raise covers single motherhood as well, providing a community for moms who are navigating co-parenting from the other side, along with challenges like dating as a parent. Jessica Butler and her son Levon. As an adoptive mother in an open adoption, she offers her perspective to hopeful and current adoptive moms, as well as birth moms and adoptees, through conversations on open and closed adoptions, interracial and kinship adoptions, and the day-to-day challenges of raising an adopted child. Raise also profiles former foster youth and current foster parents on their experiences with the system. The Raise site is currently building a team of experts in the fields of adoption, foster care, health and wellness, pediatrics, and assisted reproductive technology to serve as consultants to its growing community of modern families. She says she hopes Raise becomes a community for families who feel like they don't fit into the traditional family mold. In fact, does anyone still fit into that mold? There are so many different types of families in the world now but we don't see those stories on TV or in film. You can find out more about Jessica and her community at RaiseMagazine.com.