[IMC-Editorial] RADICAL RETAIL: The Big Business of Gay and Lesbian Family-Wear

[Jessie Harris]

FamilyEvolutions.com
2012 Oakhurst Pkwy.
Ocean, NJ  07755
732-229-9600
http://www.familyevolutions.com


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


RADICAL RETAIL:  The Big Business of Gay and Lesbian Family-Wear

Ocean, NJ - November 14, 2003 - Jessie and Stacey Harris of MysticWomen.com, 
the online store for gay and lesbian families, announce the birth of 
FamilyEvolutions.com.  Building on the foundation that Jessie and Stacey created 
in 1999 with the launch of MysticWomen.com, the owners have given their store a 
new name, a new look, and more options for their community of users.

"Back in 1999, we didn't know that we were starting our own mini revolution.  We 
were young activists - about to become moms for the first time - who just knew a 
crazy idea like this could really work," says Stacey Harris, co-owner of 
FamilyEvolutions.com.  Since 1999, Jessie and Stacey have fielded orders from 
Boston to Nashville to Los Angeles to Sydney to Hong Kong.  Starting with only a 
few designs on baby tee shirts, Jessie and Stacey have gradually expanded their 
offerings to more than twenty different designs on tee shirts, rompers, dog shirts 
and even underwear, in sizes to fit every customer from newborn to adult.  

"The response to our store and our designs - like 'My Mother Wears Combat Boots' 
and 'Closets are For Toys' - has been overwhelming.  We have customers that 
come back year after year to buy new shirts for their kids.  We have customers 
that shop with us for every lesbian baby shower they attend.  And we have other 
customers who use our shirts as gifts to send affirmation to their gay or lesbian 
family members.  We feel proud to be a part of people's lives in these very special 
ways," says Jessie Harris, co-owner of FamilyEvolutions.com.

Jessie and Stacey hope that their company's growth and recent transformation 
into FamilyEvolutions.com is a testament to the significant number and vitality of 
gay and lesbian families in the U.S. and elsewhere.  "We owe our success to the 
huge base of support we have received from gay and lesbian families, and we're 
here to support them in return," says Stacey Harris.  With the new site 
FamilyEvolutions.com, Jessie and Stacey not only showcase their many new 
designs and clothing styles, they have also expanded their customers' options for 
connecting with other parents, and for sharing resources valuable to gay and 
lesbian families.  

In addition to their Resources area, FamilyEvolutions.com features:  an online Birth 
and Adoption Announcements area where users can post a photo and news of 
their recent addition, and where other visitors can email their congratulations to 
the happy family; a Forum area, where visitors can connect directly and start their 
own - or join in existing - conversation threads, on everything from sperm banks to 
circumcision; and an online advice column, "Ask Evolved Moms", written by the 
founders of FamilyEvolutions.com themselves.  

"We hear all the time from people who visit our site and our booth at pride festivals 
that customers come to us on countless occasions to find an adoption agency 
that will help them become dads, or a sperm bank that is friendly to lesbians, or a 
surrogacy agency that will work with single gay men.  And they get in touch with 
us months or years later to let us know that we helped them become parents - 
there is nothing more gratifying than that," says Jessie Harris.

 ###

Jessie and Stacey Harris have been madly in love for more than 10 years.  They 
have two amazing kids who are the inspiration for most of their ideas and all of 
their work - Zion Sun, three-and-a-half, and Torin Sage, seven months.  They live 
on the Jersey Shore - having recently relocated from Boston - and look forward to 
providing the gay parenting community with much decoration, humor and support 
for years to come.  Stay tuned for upcoming baby books, toys and maternity-wear.


Contact:
Jessie Harris
mailto:jessie at familyevolutions.com
732-229-9600 (phone)
732-571-3775 (evening phone)
801-720-4307 (fax)
http://www.familyevolutions.com

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