Megan Lierley, co-founder of Green Street Social, is passionate about redefining postpartum support for new mothers. Drawing from her own experience, she and Olivia have built a community-driven space where expecting and new parents can easily access both social and professional support. Today, we discuss her journey, the vision behind Green Street Social, and how she’s helping to rebuild the village modern mothers need.
The service you and Olivia are providing new families as a social and practical outlet is incredibly valuable! What decisions led you to assembling this vision?
Thank you so much! Green Street Social was born out of our own postpartum experiences and knowing we wanted to build something for new moms. In San Francisco, neither of us found the outlet(s) we were looking for in those bleary-eyed newborn days in terms of either community or professional support (honestly, I didn’t even understand the full landscape of what was available to me and when/why I might want or need a specific service or practitioner). We want to make it easy for someone to sign up for our Foundations program when they get pregnant, and have those pieces plugged into their support system before baby even arrives.
What insights were you able to glean from your experience moving through motherhood in parallel with other mothers?
Motherhood is beautifully connecting and simultaneously feels like such an autonomous job. I’m always sharing and receiving photos, stories, and motherhood advice with my close friends, and yet when I’m with my kids, I know I’m the only mom they’re looking to for all their needs and desires. I also really love Amy Poehler’s advice, “Good for her! Not for me.” I’m lucky enough to be friends with incredible moms who love their children dearly. It really warms my heart, but it doesn’t mean our children all need the same things or we’re going to show our love in the same ways.
What length of time do your motherhood cohorts spend meeting each other within Green Street Social, and how are you able to assemble hyper-local mothers in the same birth window?
Each cohort meets twice virtually and twice in person over the course of their time in Foundations. My absolute favorite part of the program is watching relationships develop organically once the program ends. Seeing each other four times obviously isn’t enough time to become best friends, but when the program ends is really when this new life journey begins and the parents-to-be start organizing events and hangouts on their own. In terms of how we assemble the cohorts, there are doula referrals, word of mouth, and people find us on Instagram. Then I’m behind the scenes with a spreadsheet of due dates, ha!
Could you explain your philosophy regarding modern mothers often not receiving the sort of village-centric support they may be essentially evolved to rely on?
We started Foundations because as new moms in San Francisco, I can think of exactly one friend who has immediate family actually living in the city. Most don’t even have family in the Bay Area. There are so many reasons to love city living, but having a village of family and friends at your doorstep is not one of them! But as moms, innately, we crave that. No one can replicate or reproduce having a tribe of female family members coming in and out of your house to feed you and hold your baby, but we’re trying our best to help establish support systems in this modern era.
What was a moment you felt most supported by your social circle during motherhood?
I love this question. It’s been an absolute joy to watch my kids find community amongst my friends and family and the families in our neighborhood. Our community has been so supportive but the moment that really stands out comes before they were born. I’m an IVF mom, and my journey to pregnancy was long and difficult. There was a solid year when I was pretty much a shell of myself, my entire being consumed by the desire to become a mother. The gestures throughout IVF — showing up even when I was sad and bitter, sending cards and “thinking of you” texts, remembering my doctor’s appointments and checking in — made me feel incredibly loved and amplified the feelings of gratitude that my babies were going to be born into this community of wonderful humans.
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