"It's a dodgy title," said the 35-year-old London native, who recently moved to Ridgewood with her four children and husband. Yes, she may have been the star of Bravo's TV reality show, "Pregnant in Heels," in which she helped expectant New York City moms with most everything from choosing nannies and names to nursery décor. And, yes, she may have published "Mommy IQ: The Complete Guide to Pregnancy" — touted on Amazon as "the ultimate girlfriend's guide to pregnancy" — and launched "Conversations with Rosie Pope," a series of YouTube vignettes on a variety of subjects, from how to ban the pacifier to sex after pregnancy. And, yes, she may have two maternity and kids clothing-and-accessory lines — Rosie Pope Maternity and Rosie Pope Baby — and three stores (two in New York City and one in Santa Monica, Calif.) to sell the stuff.
But an expert?
"I'm more of a friend, or translator," Pope said, adding: "You know what I'm an expert at? Being honest, and talking about my problems. That helps people sort through their problems. I have no filter."
Thin, blond and unpretentious, Pope, who uses her hands a lot when talking, has a talent for taking what could be serious points about the nerve-wracking pressures of raising a child and turning them into animated, laughter-inducing snippets — like when she throws herself around to simulate a mother's guilt about buying a kid the wrong sweat pants ("Oh my God, he's going to be so unhappy at school and everyone is going to tease him!") or riffs in her rapid-fire way about celebrity moms that spout "kooky" theories about parenting ("I'm going to chew my food up and spit it into my baby's mouth!" "I'm going to eat my placenta!")
That unabashed frankness and easygoing humor are the reasons for her appeal, said Danielle King, an executive producer for Bravo TV who became close with Pope while she was filming "Pregnant in Heels."
"She gives mothers permission to be themselves — flaws and all," King said. "And you feel safe asking her all those crazy questions you might not feel comfortable asking anyone else — she provides a wealth of knowledge and absolutely no judgment."
Pope's husband Daron — they married in 2006 — worked for Lehman Brothers on Wall Street before becoming president and CEO of his wife's company. He attributes his wife's success to the fact that, he said, "she's mindful that every parent's experience and every household equation is different, and yet she's also very real — she opens up, and allows people to understand that she, too, is not perfect."
This is exactly what attracted the Ridgewood-based Valley Health System to collaborate with Pope on a new campaign that launched in January to promote pregnancy health and wellness, said Maureen Curran Kleinman, Valley's media relations and social media coordinator.
"Rosie's philosophy is very non-judgmental, informative and entertaining," she said, "which is very much in mind with our programs."
As part of that collaboration, Pope will provide educational information and personal posts on Valley's Fertility Center and Center for Childbirth Facebook pages, and be the keynote speaker at three events hosted by Thrive!, Valley's free membership program for women. Although she'll touch on a variety of subjects, Pope's message to moms tends to be uniform: have confidence in your decisions, and understand that you're going to make mistakes — and that's OK.
"It's the one thing you'll do that you want to do better than anything else, so you get nervous — it's like taking the biggest exam of your life," Pope said. "But I tell people that's a good thing, because it's a sign you care. They're going to do some things wrong, but that doesn't mean you're a bad parent."
Pope, an only child, always knew she wanted a big family. She came to America at age 18 for her "gap year" between high school and college, and never went home — she spent the next four years modeling and ballet dancing in New York City before "realizing I needed an education" and enrolling in Columbia University at age 22. Four years later, she graduated with an undergraduate degree in neuroscience, but six months of research work convinced her that the lab wasn't for her.
"I liked it, I just didn't see myself doing it forever," she said.
So she got a job at A Pea in the Pod, a chain that sells trendy maternity clothes, and used her time on the sales floor to explore whether or not there'd be a market for the new, fashionable maternity line she wanted to start. Using the skills she learned from her grandmother, who taught her to make clothes, she began designing dresses, one at a time, for pregnant women attending galas or balls, and later got a small group of investors together to fund the creation of Rosie Pope Maternity in 2008. Two years later she launched MomPrep, a roster of classes and workshops on pregnancy and parenting taught out of the stores, and Rosie Pope Baby followed in 2014.
Major career changes seem to be a family trait — her father was a successful geophysicist who, at age 36, became a professional dancer before going into construction in his late 40s, and her mother, a trained dentist, is a consultant in complex healthcare systems.
"It didn't seem strange to me to go from studying science at Columbia to making maternity clothes … [my parents] really taught me that if you believe in something, do it."
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http://www.northjersey.com/news/health-news/tv-reality-star-rosie-pope-teams-with-valley-health-system-1.1263959
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