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After having her first kid, Michelle Kennedy found herself alone.
The then-37-year-old, who lives in London, says she fell out of touch with her friends who weren't mothers.
"I was very much on my own and didn't feel like I had that support network," she says. "My girlfriends weren't having babies. They weren't at that stage yet. I was the first."
So she did what anyone in the throes of desperation would do: She turned to her phone.
In 2017, Kennedy—a pioneer of swipe-based networking who previously worked for Bumble's parent company—launched Peanut as a platform for new and soon-to-be moms to connect with each other.
The idea is similar to apps like Tinder and Bumble, except geared toward companionship rather than dating. Moms swipe, or in this case "wave" at each other, to match and start chatting. Profiles show photos, bios and information on how old their kids are and what they are interested in—whether it's fashion, crafting or simply "Wine Time." Kennedy says the app "isn't a replacement for you having friends in real life. It's just to make motherhood less lonely, less isolating, and to make it easier to find support."
Peanut also has a community forum feature, where moms can crowdsource questions about topics such as maternity leave and postpartum depression, or join meetup groups.
The app first launched in London and New York, but is available anywhere in the U.S. It's grown particularly popular in Portland, with around 4,000 local moms making use of it. For that reason, the company officially launched here on Aug. 6, offering formal organizing groups and sign-up initiatives.
The app, Kennedy says, is currently for "anyone who identifies as a woman"—meaning nonbinary parents and gay couples who identify as men aren't included in the Peanut community.
"It's not that it's not something that we would think about. We just haven't got there yet," Kennedy says. "If you have something you want to talk about—that might be postpartum sex, it might be domestic violence—you can do it in a safe space, which is where you are surrounded by other women."
DOWNLOAD: Peanut is available for download on Apple and Google Play.
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