Q&A: Elizabeth Tenety Galle, co-founder of Mother.ly, talks motherhood, journalism and Catholicism

(RNS) Elizabeth Tenety Galle is a former religion reporter and editor who recently founded a new online venture dedicated to helping mothers learn, grow, share and evolve. Ahead of Mother’s Day, we sat down to talk to her about journalism, motherhood and her Catholic faith. The interview was edited for length and clarity.

Q: So, though you have recently shifted careers — and we’ll get to your new gig in a moment — you started our with a high-profile job in religion journalism at the Washington Post. What’s your take on the state of religion journalism?

Religion journalism remains one of the most exciting and dynamic beats in the media. What could be more important than reporting on the point of human existence? I loved it.

Just so far in 2016 alone, stories about transgender people in restrooms, evangelical support (or not) of Donald Trump and Pope Francis’ symbolic actions towards refugees have led news headlines around the world. A religion reporter’s job is never done.

Conversations about faith continue to be central to coverage of the world we live in, but religion journalism continues to evolve — from Crux leaving the Boston Globe to a few notable leading Godbeat reporters going in new directions. My sense is as much — if not more — than other beats, religion reporters need to be willing to adapt and evolve in our rapidly-moving media environment. They need to care about Facebook’s algorithm as much as ancient theology.

Q: You ultimately left religion journalism. Why?

I actually came very close to enrolling in divinity school and committing even more deeply to into a career in religion journalism, but I ultimately decided instead to take the plunge into the digital media/ startup world.

Living in Silicon Valley for a few years, it became clear to me that great ideas and important information weren’t going anywhere. Facebook is changing the way the world gets information. Virtual Reality will transform the way we relate to one another. Snapchat is empowering people under 30 to create a whole new language using only emojis and puppy dog filters. We can love it or hate it, but it’s happening. And I, for one, love the puppy dog filter.

I realized that I needed to get way outside of the box to figure out how human beings in the 21st century are going to get and share content — and that I wanted to play a role in that world being created.

Perhaps someday that might include work again on the religion beat. But for now (and to my surprise, as for many years I imagined staying in religion journalism for the rest of my life!) I am happy to have a new project and direction.

Q: Mother’s Day is just around the corner. As a young mother of three — one of whom is prenatal — what is your take on being a young, professional mother today?

For many women in my generation, there is no conflict between being a devoted mother, and being successful at work. This generation of women is highly educated, empowered by technology that allows for more flexibility in when and where they work, and sees professional fulfillment as core to their identities.

And thankfully, this generation has truly moved on beyond the ‘Mommy Wars.’

“This is a generation that is going to change parenthood for the better.”

Millennial moms might freelance for a few years while their children are young. They might become a consultant or start their own businesses to have more ownership of their schedules. They might go back to work after maternity leave in order to provide for their families. They might take some time off to raise children out of necessity or choice — and they might roll in and out of these roles over the years. One thing they don’t do is spend time judging other women for the personal choices they make. It’s really refreshing to have a front-row seat to such a supportive conversation around motherhood. This is truly the you-do-you generation.

That doesn’t mean that these choices are easy for most women. The United States’ lack of paid maternity and paternity leave, in my opinion, is an injustice that leaves women and their infants vulnerable — and is incredibly short-sighted. Paid leave is an investment in our national future, and in the physical, emotional, and economic well-being of millions of women, children and their families. We’re talking about very specific outcomes for infants and their mothers — like the rate of SIDS, breastfeeding, vaccinations, postpartum depression, obesity, employment — that are all negatively and directly impacted by our lack of paid leave. It’s unacceptable to me.

In addition to working, women still perform a majority of household tasks and often bear the “psychic burden” of parenthood — accumulated duties like filing out permission slips and planning snacks for preschool — which mothers often happily do, but the reality is it typically defaults to them.

In short, women are caught between tradition and change, and they’re finding their own ways through it because too many social and political structures don’t support them in the world they live in today.

Still, I am very hopeful. The call for paid leave is reaching critical mass. Mothers are finding very creative ways to support each other, and themselves, through new technologies and online platforms. And many new, constructive conversations around the role of men and women in the household are also emerging. For example, modern fathers embrace roles that just a generation or two ago were considered out-of bounds — they change diapers without hesitation, they support their partners as co-breadwinners, and they too seek careers that make room for greater involvement in family life.

This is a generation that is going to change parenthood for the better.

Q: Indeed, you feel so strongly about this that you helped create a new initiative to help mothers navigate some of these challenge. Can you tell us more about Mother.ly?

Motherly was born out of a sense that digital conversations around motherhood did not reflect this new, modern mother. My cofounder Jill Koziol and I wanted to create an online home to empower women with expert information and mom-to-mom inspiration.

We knew that Motherly would never shame women for making specific choices that work for them (around anything from career to infant feeding to sleep techniques), or try to scare them with hyperventilating, anecdote-based articles.

Instead, we tried to focus on what would be truly helpful — expert tips on conversations to have with your boss before maternity leave, date night ideas with your spouse during the exhausted weeks of new parenthood, and reflections on when to have another baby.

So after working with Matter, a 20 week accelerator for early-stage media companies in San Fransisco, we launched Motherly in Dec 2015 as a week-by-week guide to new motherhood. From planning a pregnancy through the toddler years, we send weekly email newsletters to women based on where they are in the journey — and who they are as women. Unlike other parenting sites, we’re really woman-centered, so our content focus is on how the mother’s life is evolving — less so than what fruit size is her baby this week (though at 26 weeks pregnant today, my baby girl is apparently the size of an adorable stalk of kale).

“Motherly was born out of a sense that digital conversations around motherhood did not reflect this new, modern mother.”

Each week we send women a bundle of articles across four areas: Life, Child, Work and Love — each customized to her — so if she’s a stay-at-home mom she’ll get different tips and essays than if she were working at the office. We’re really excited to finally have enough data post-launch to dig into that’s showing that our personalized focus is really paying off — with click and engagement rates for our newsletters up to 11 times industry averages for media companies. In short, we’ve found something women really need, and it feels really meaningful to be doing this kind of work.

What I’m most passionate about going forward are the video workshops we’re creating — which will live alongside the newsletters. We’re creating a suite of expert-led classes on everything from how to leap ahead at work as a new working mom, to how to take amazing photos of your baby with your iPhone, to breastfeeding lessons for pregnant women. This is information that women are perpetually seeking online, but it’s been too hard to get high-quality, actionable information on your smartphone. Through these video tutorials and related curriculum, we’re excited to make it easier for women to find and apply great, inspiring ideas to their daily lives.

Q: You are a strong — if complex — Catholic who cares deeply about her faith. In fact, you have an important contribution in a new book on the Church coming out this August. How has your faith influenced your beliefs and choices in the areas we just discussed?

I have always felt a strong sense of vocation — that my role is where the gifts I’ve been given meet the needs of the world. When I was covering religion, there was a (perhaps) obvious connection from that faith background to the pull I felt to drive these “big conversations” as an editor and reporter. I felt truly alive editing and reporting on these topics — and it cast my work in a spiritual perspective, for me.

But in my new role at Motherly, I get to be something newly meaningful to me as a mother — I get to advocate for women and children, and find tangible opportunities to help make their lives better. In many ways, it feels like the vocation I’ve been building towards my entire life.

More religion news

Want more in-depth, non-sectarian coverage of religion, spirituality and ideas? Visit religionnews.com, or sign up to get the top religion news from RNS and around the Web delivered to your inbox in our daily Slingshot email newsletter.