Our Founder
Melanie Notkin is America’s premier Savvy Auntie, empowering the nearly 50% of American women who are not moms to celebrate all they do for the children in their lives, while living their own lives to the fullest. She launched SavvyAuntie.com, the first online community for aunts and godmothers, in the summer of 2008 to wide-acclaim. The website includes expert content designed specifically for aunts, activities, community and trendy gift ideas.
Melanie identified this influential segment of women, which she has dubbed PANKs (Professional Aunts No Kids), when she herself became an aunt. In February 2009, she guest posted for Lisa Belkin’s parenting blog in The New York Times to explain the value of aunts and godmothers in family life. The term has also appeared in More Magazine, TrendCentral.com, Washington Post, The Record, The Star Ledger, Dallas Morning News among others. On July 26, 2009, she launched Savvy Auntie’s Day, the first national holiday to honor aunts and aunt-hood.
As child lifestyle expert and tastemaker, Auntie Melanie has been featured numerous times on NBC, CBS, ABC, CW, FOX News and Better TV showcasing the coolest kid trends of the season. She was also contributing editor at Toy Wishes Magazine and serves on the Toy Industry Association Toy of the Year Nomination Committee.
She has worked with leading kid brands like Hasbro, Disney, Hallmark, Yoplait, Sprout, Scholastic, and brands for women including Warner Brothers Sex and the City Movie, Turner Networks/TNT, JCPenney, Tropicana, BeyondTheRack.com and BareNecessities.com. Her groundbreaking and effective advertising campaigns have been featured in Mashable.com, The New York Times, Advertising Age and The Wall Street Journal where she’s been lauded as a ‘trusted source’ and spokesperson for America’s top brands.
SavvyAuntie.com was 2009 Webby Award nominee for Best
Family/Parenting site and is a Springwise.com Top 10 Lifestyle and
Leisure Business Idea for 2008. Melanie is featured on Mashable.com’s
list of top 5 start ups in New York City’s social media hub. Her first
book: SAVVY AUNTIE: The Ultimate Guide for Cool Aunts, Great-Aunts, Godmothers and All Women Who Love Kids (HarperCollins) debuts April 26,
2011.
As a successful business woman, she was a regular panelist on FOX News’ Strategy Room Business Hour. She also lectures at various conferences inspiring women, students and entrepreneurs on launching the business of their dreams. She’s been featured on First30Days.com, Business Week and Huffington Post for her leveraging of social media to launch and grow her business. She has documented the launch of her own business at her ‘auntrepreneurial’ blog at blog.savvyauntie.com.
Before developing Savvy Auntie, Melanie was an interactive marketing and communications executive for global Fortune 500 companies, including New York Times Digital and American Express, as well as L'Oréal. She is a graduate of McGill University in Montreal, Canada where she was born.
She is a Savvy Auntie and Auntie by Relation (ABR) to a number of wonderful children who are the loves of her life. She is also an Auntie By Choice (ABC) to all of her friends’ kids, who come in a very close second. Melanie resides in New York where she is surrounded by the very best the City has to offer.
You can find Melanie at Twitter.com/SavvyAuntie, Facebook.com/SavvyAuntie ,Youtube.com/SavvyAuntie and at Blog.SavvyAuntie.com, and of course SavvyAuntie.com.
For more information: MelanieNotkin.com