As part of our annual By Women series—which spotlights the best women-owned products and companies—we’re committed to giving female founders who own 51% or more of their business a platform. This not only allows them to introduce their brilliant products to a wide and potentially new audience, but it also helps you—the reader—discover really cool stuff. Like Magnetic Me, a line of clothing for babies and kids that fasten with magnets instead of snaps or zippers founded by mom-of-three Lauren Levy.
Lauren Levy was a new aunt trying to wrestle a bib onto her crying infant nephew when she realized something that made her heart sink. The bib’s Velcro closure had caught on his little baby hairs, and was pulling them out.
“It was so stressful,” she tells Glamour. “I thought, this whole thing should be a magnet so I could dress him quickly. The magnet would actually help me instead of causing chaos and I could get back to doing what I loved with him, which was cuddling and smooching him.”
That frustration eventually turned into an idea for Magnetic Me—an innovative line of kid’s clothing that uses magnetic closures instead of snaps, velcro, or zippers (Levy notes that her inspiration and nephew turned 18 this year).
She founded the company in 2010, and it now sells everything from sleepers to nightgowns and clothing for big kids, all with that simple, hassle-free closure. Levy chatted with us about how many parts of the parenting experience are ripe for disruption and how taking risks can lead to great things.
ELIZABETHPETTEY
Glamour: What parenthood pain point were you trying to solve?
Lauren Levy: Nobody had innovated in the baby and kid clothing space since the invention of the zipper 100 years ago, and when we started 15 years ago snaps were basically the only game in town. Everybody hates trying to close a bazillion snaps on a wiggly, crying baby especially in the middle of the night, and everybody remembers their child’s face when they get their child’s skin caught in a zipper. That is something that still haunts me to this day. With Magnetic Me, we focus on the ease of dressing a baby and independent dressing for toddlers and kids, with the softest fabrics.
