Call for pitches

Pitch us!

Everyone’s experience with the journey to motherhood is different. We want to hear your story! Juno is currently seeking 500-800-word personal essays related to women’s experiences with pregnancy, childbirth, and motherhood on a variety of themes.

 

We welcome unconventional stories that show how real women experience the transition from pregnancy to motherhood.

 

If you have a compelling story to tell, please send a brief pitch (3-5 sentences) to chelsea@hellojuno.motherfigure.com and iza@hellojuno.motherfigure.com. In your pitch, please note what story your essay will tell. Please do not send complete essays. Juno will pay $100 for each piece accepted.

What we're looking for

Creative, well-written, and specific stories about your life with UI. Maybe talking to your partner about having UI strengthened your relationship. Maybe changing your diet because of UI inspired you to start cooking for yourself and you re-discovered the joy of food. Maybe dealing with stress UI during exercise didn’t stop you from winning a gold medal in your sport. We want stories that inspire confidence, give insight into life with UI, and let others know that they’re not alone. Check out our first-person section for some good examples, and try not to pitch something we’ve already published. In addition to first-person narratives, we’re also looking for well-written and thoughtful reviews of specific UI products (pads, liners, underwear, bladder support, Kegel gadgets). We want to hear the good, the bad, and the ugly: What brands or private labels worked for you and what didn’t, and why?

Stories about family

UI is private, but it can almost certainly affect your family too. From intimacy with your partner, to how you play with your kids, to how UI affects your mood, which might get taken out on others, we’re looking for unique perspectives on how your UI plays a role—good, bad, or somewhere in between—in your family.

 

Some examples of the kinds essays we’d be interested in:

  • A letter to your partner (current, or a future / hypothetical one) about having UI, and your anticipation of what it might mean for your life together moving forward
  • How having UI has made you more reluctant to host family holidays at your house, which has put a strain on your family relationships
  • You sprung a leak during a family Thanksgiving, leading to a comedy of errors
  • Your family vacation to Yellowstone turned out to be more complicated than you expected when nature called (and called and called and called)
  • Your started experiencing UI after having a baby, and you found yourself doing a scientific comparison of your own pads and your baby’s diapers

Essays on pregnancy

Many women experience UI for the first time during the third trimester of pregnancy, when the organs have shifted around and the baby just won’t stop pressing on the bladder. You’re busy preparing for the baby’s arrival, and taking care of your own leaks might not be something you were expecting. We’re looking for thoughtful essays on your experiences with UI during pregnancy.

 

Some examples of the kinds of essays we’d be interested in:

  • You and your best friend were pregnant at the same time and had a memorable evening sharing stories and laughing so hard you both ended up in puddles
  • Anxiety about a complicated pregnancy made you neglect your own well-being, and your UI went unchecked, causing some problems
  • You rushed to the hospital thinking your water had broken early, only to realize after you’d arrived that it was just a particularly enthusiastic UI leak. This happened more than once.

Tales of change

It’s no secret that UI brings with it a lot of transformation: your body changes in ways you might not have expected, and you might also experience life changes as a result. You might also implement changes or new self-care routines to mitigate your UI symptoms and live your best life. We’re seeking essays with new perspectives on the transformations—good, bad, or surprising—that come with living with UI.

 

Some examples of the kinds of essays we’d be interested in:

  • Your UI made you organized. From tracking your leak frequency in your bullet journal to completely reorganizing your bathroom, you became a UI neat freak—and organized the rest of your life while you were at it
  • Just when you finally got used to living with postpartum UI, you experienced pelvic organ prolapse, which wreaked havoc on your body. Finally, after seeing doctor after doctor, you’ve come to terms with what’s going on inside you.
  • You started a UI support group in your community 10 years ago, and now, in addition to knowing TMI about all the ladies in the group, they’re also your best friends
  • UI brought on serious depression and anxiety about leaving the house, and you and your partner struggled to live with this new version of you

Pieces on intimacy

UI is intimate in a lot of different ways. Obviously, talking about UI necessitates talking about the most intimate parts of your body and a lot of bathroom habits. It can also affect sex and intimacy with a partner. Moreover, even just talking about it or admitting that it’s something you experience can be incredibly intimate encounters. We’re seeking thoughtful essays about any aspect of intimacy related to UI, whether that’s sex, conversations, bathroom routines, or the stuff that might just be TMI.

 

Some examples of the kinds of essays we’d be interested in:

  • You’re a urogynecologist, and you never imagined that your life would entail massaging the insides of women’s vaginas and talking them through how best to pee, but the help and reassurance you’re able to provide your patients makes it all worth it
  • The first time you realized you were leaking during sex was a little traumatic, but you and your partner have figured out ways to deal with it (or not!)
  • You helped your elderly mother shop for incontinence underwear and ended up admitting to her that you’ve been wearing absorbent undies for years

How you're owning it

Looking for—and finding—the right products can be a gamechanger. So can simply admitting you have UI and knowing how to ask for/get help from those who can give it. Or taking the leap and not being ashamed anymore to leave the house, shop for products in a store, or admit that you had an accident. We’re looking for essays about the moments when you’ve owned your UI and unabashedly embraced it—whether that was from the get-go or took some time.

 

  • You used to have an elaborate system of lies about why you were going to the bathroom so often or why you carried such a big purse (full of pads and extra underwear)—but eventually you stopped caring what other people think, and you’ve never looked back
  • You used to buy incontinence pads on the internet because you were afraid of running into people you knew in the store—and having to admit to your UI—but after desperately needing some pads, you found shopping in the store to actually be quite liberating
  • You used to be so ashamed of your UI that you turned down invitations, dropped out of your basketball league, and stopped seeing your friends. After a friend discussed her own UI journey with you, and with the support of friends and therapists, you came to realize that it’s just part of who you are—and you helped your team win a basketball tournament two years in a row