What do mothers really want? Deeper conversations

FastCompany: You’re at the playground, making small talk with another mom while your kids dig in the sandbox. The conversation follows a predictable script: sleep schedules, daycare waitlists, whether your toddler will eat anything green. It’s pleasant enough, but you’ll forget about it by the time you pile your kids into the car for nap time. But what you really wanted to ask is: What’s something about birth and postpartum that surprised you? What do you wish your partner understood? How did becoming a mother change your marriage?

Those are the conversations that actually matter, because they deepen relationships and allow mothers to pass their wisdom to one another. But they feel impossible to start without seeming intense or intrusive. [Photo: Spread the Jelly] Spread the Jelly , an 18-month-old media platform, wants to help. It has just launched a deck of cards called The Sticky Stuff, meant to prompt mothers to have deeper conversations faster. “Everything we’ve been doing is about like breaking people open, allowing people to be their messiest or their happiest selves at the same time,” says Amrit Tietz, who founded the company with Lauren Levinger in late 2024.

The Sticky Stuff , which is available on the Spread the Jelly website for $45, joins a growing number of conversation cards that have entered the market, including therapist Esther Perel’s Where Should We Begin? cards that launched in 2021, Tales , which facilitates conversations with kids, and even the fast food chains Chick-fil-A, which gives out cards meant to prompt conversations around the meals. “The popularity of the cards highlights how we desperately want to talk about deep issues,” says Nicholas Epley, a professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business who has been studying conversation for two decades.

[Photo: Spread the Jelly] Modern Motherhood The idea for Spread the Jelly’s conversation cards didn’t start with market research or a business plan. It started with two women in Los Angeles who desperately needed someone to talk to. Lauren Levinger had recently had her son when Amrit Tietz, pregnant and without mom friends in her life, reached out via social media. “From social media, you look like you’re doing motherhood pretty well,” Tietz wrote to her. “Can we connect?” When they finally sat down together months later, they were surprised by how good it felt to have an honest conversation.

They quickly began to discuss the things that nobody talks about, from how lonely it can be to spend your days with a non-verbal human, to postpartum sexuality. “We realized how starved we were for community,” says Levinger. This prompted them to launch Spread The Jelly, as an online magazine for radical honesty about modern motherhood. The conversation cards came later, as a natural extension of that mission. Tietz and Levinger began to build out a deck of questions, and tested them out with their partners, families, and friends. They ended up encompassing four different categories: foundation, identity, belonging, and intimacy.

They included prompts like, “Describe your childhood in one sentence;” “Describe a moment you’re not proud of,” and “How do you show up for your loved ones?” Levinger points out that everyday conversations at the dinner table have a way of becoming stagnant. The cards suddenly unlocked a way to venture into new territory with the people in our lives. [Photo: Spread the Jelly] Why Cards Work Deeper conversations are scientifically proven to make us happier. Epley conducted these studies himself.

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The launch of conversation cards represents a unique approach to engaging mothers, addressing a significant emotional need, and is relevant for brand strategy professionals looking to innovate in community-building.