Although there are almost 3.97 billion women in the world, we can feel very alone at times. Talking about topics such as motherhood, the family, the menstrual period, medical questions and even daily violence are conversations that, although efforts are made to become more visible, are still difficult to address. But what if there was an exclusive space to talk about all this, at any time, from anywhere? Michelle Kennedy created it, and it’s an app called Peanut .
Kennedy has a particular history. She was CEO of Badoo and Bumble. But, while during the day she was in charge of creating novelties and tools to match couples, she was in another stage: motherhood. And during the nights she spent hours on Google looking for answers about how she felt but, above all, she was looking to fill a void because she wanted to know that other women were also in her place. I needed to hear those stories.
“People only asked me about my son, but I wanted to talk about myself. I felt overwhelmed because, contrary to what they tell you, it wasn’t getting ‘easier’. I just needed to meet other women who were in the same stage as me. A need to find friends who were also moms,” Kennedy shared.
But Kennedy had an advantage: thanks to his work experience, if there is one thing he knows how to do very well, it is to connect people. Why not create a space for women to make community? That’s how he created Peanut.
Creating human connections in the digital age
It is a fact that the way we relate to each other has changed thanks to technology. Kennedy remembers that, five years ago, it was not so accepted to meet someone on a dating app, while today it is already very common. “There was a stigma that is now changing,” he says.
And he confesses that something similar happened to him while creating Peanut. “There was a sense of fear because… Is this the new way we’re going to make friends? but there was evidence that people wanted it.” She thinks the biggest problem of the modern age is loneliness, and if she can do something to make people feel a little less lonely, why not?
And it is that, nobody more than another woman, who is in the same stage as you, will understand what it means to stop at three in the morning, tired and alone, to breastfeed your baby. If you’re feeling down right now and you know you can grab your phone and join another woman who’s doing the same thing, it can make it a little easier.
But what makes us able to create connections with other people? Kennedy admits that if she hadn’t worked in the dating industry, she wouldn’t have been able to create this product because she identified three main things:
- Having something in common: this is one of the most important aspects. Whether it’s a personal taste, an activity, a stage or a situation, having something in common with another person makes it easier to establish a connection.
- Women are more demanding: “ As women, we have very high standards. We want a product that is beautiful, that works well, but above all, that understands our needs and that our expectations are high”.
- Women share: “ When we like something, we tell everyone. We recommend it. We are influencers by nature.
How does Peanut work?
Peanut was born in 2017 and Kennedy admits that, to create this app, she had to listen a lot to the needs of women and the main objective is “to create a safe space to find friendship and support”.
You don’t necessarily have to be a mom to be part of the community; when you sign up, the app asks what stage you’re in and you can choose “fertility”, “mom-to-be”, “mom”, “menopause” or “none of the above”.
For this, the app has several functions sections:
The first is similar to how it works in apps like Tinder or Bumble, it is used to find friends. The interesting thing is that you can filter depending on the stage you are in; For example, you can find a friend who is in her first trimester of pregnancy, or the one who already has a two-year-old son and chat.
They also have “communities and groups”, where you can find more women who are interested in the same thing as you. For example, fitness, lifestyle, dance, politics, fashion, technology…
Additionally, there is a section of “Pods” or podcasts in which, similar to Twitter spaces, women can start a conversation or follow one that has already started.
It includes an “experts” section, which has doctors, therapists, sexual and marital psychologists, in which women can write their doubts and they will be answered. Something that the app also offers are numerous guides.
The application was only available in the United States, but now it has arrived in Mexico and is like .
