At ABC kids I spent a great deal of my time with publishers and group publishing heads discussing what many felt was already a fait accompli – the end of Cookie. Much of the conversation centered on their ad pages and their obvious failure to pull in revenue and meet projections especially within the category. And while I am always happy to discuss circulation and ad pages (I am an old magazine girl with publishing blood coursing through my veins) – what really strikes me is the rise and the fall of the Cookie brand. Because really – Cookie defined so much of the modern parent movement – and gave us all a stake in something well beyond our means.

Cookie, the bible of aspirational parenting (as I call it) – hit the scene in 2005. Ad pages were mostly filled with lifestyle ads well outside of the juvenile category. Fashion pages were the main “cross-over” (none of us ever believed these were more than bonus pages, no matter) and the book looked good. It was not honest (who lived like the moms in the pages of Cookie?), but it was fun! Cookie was high style and high imagination for main street parents. This beautifully presented insiders look at parenting on Melrose and Madison was in perfect synchronicity with America’s near obsession with celebrity pregnancy and baby. It gave readers access to a world well beyond their means, and before Cookie – outside of even their fantasy zone. It also paved the way for a new generation of luxury goods within the category and defined a new psychographic category of mom (a Cookie Mom was a spender, a trend-setter and a woman with a very clear aesthetic –not to mention a nanny and great shoes). Manufacturers who catered to this category were suddenly understood and adored. This tricked down in a very real economic way to Main Street Moms who made it their business not only to know what was happening on Melrose and Madison but also to have a little piece of it themselves. Cookie was all that was shiny and hip about parenting. It was bold and unapologetic – and now it is gone.

I want to consider what will come next. It is a conversation that is going to be had over and again and I will be a part of it. Only, not yet – not today. Today is a day to quietly consider the indelible mark Cookie left on the parenting category and hope that the death of Cookie is not the death of dreaming out loud within this category that I love so very much.

Goodbye Cookie – and especially to all of you with whom I have worked over the years – thank you for what you have shared with me of yourselves, your creativity and your contagious energy. I look forward to our paths crossing again very soon!