Created to make life easier for busy parents and pet parents!
How the Diary Apps came to be
Tara O’Connell launched the first of the Diary Apps in 2012 with the creation of The Baby Diaries. This baby app was developed by Tara after the birth of her son Alexander. Tara says making daily routines simpler after the birth of Alex was a necessity rather than an option.
“After the birth of my second child, I expected to replace the pen and paper used to record my first baby’s daily activities 11 years earlier, with an App. Sleep routines, change, feeding times and quantities, introducing and monitoring solid food reactions, tracking medications, and keeping a log of milestones had been a job in itself back in 2001!” she recalls. “Many parents will remember the hard Baby Books that are sitting on shelves only partly completed due to a lack of time. I thought surely there would already be a Baby App that helps parents to keep track of all these essential daily habits and milestones” she said.
After much searching in 2012, Ms O’Connell did find some Apps that did some of the things she needed, however nothing offered the full suite of activities that she was looking for … so she decided to develop one herself! Having a midwife sister helped to confirm that the idea was a good one and that there was a demand for such an App.
After gaining excellent traction through spots on The Today Show, and in dozens of parenting magazines, a new distribution strategy was needed to take the app to more new parents. Tara decided to partner with businesses who could distribute the free app to millions of new parents via membership and loyalty programs, offering a win-win for customers and corporate partners.
TerryWhite Chemmart were the first white-labelled partner to join the partnership program, and allowed their members to enjoy the benefits of The Baby Diaries for the last three years.
Tara says it was a natural progression from The Baby Diaries to The Pet Diaries as she had always had fur babies and could see great potential in developing a second app to replace pen and paper to record things such as vaccinations, medications, exercise, nutrition and photos. The Pet Diaries launched late last year.
Tara recently resigned as the CEO of The Baby Diaries and The Pet Diaries but remains invested in the successfulness of her ‘babies’ and has passed the reins over to the new CEO, Stacey Gadway.
Stacey is the mother of two boys and is now looking to help small to medium businesses in both the mother/baby and pet industry grow and engage with their community by offering a very affordable solution to business owners who want their own branded App.
Our team
Simone Novello
Leading Partnerships Expert
Our resident partnerships expert, Simone Novello, has worked with global brands including American Express, ANZ, Commonwealth Bank, Virgin Australia, Sydney University and Myer.
“One of the biggest factors in engagement strategy success is ensuring loyalty program offers are tailored to the individual’s needs”
– Gallup
Women-owned businesses
These apps were brought to you by a Women-Owned Business. Women-owned businesses are growing at twice the national average and in turn contribute over a trillion dollars to the economy. By supporting this product you help support not only this women-owned business but the entire economy.
Awards and Recognition
We are so proud of the many awards, and fabulous recognition that our apps have received, including Australia’s National Digital Innovation Award winner 2016, however it’s the reviews from our users telling us how much they love our apps that we cherish the most.
“I couldn’t be more proud of the enormous benefits our apps are bringing to families around the globe. Yes these feet are my son’s … their footprints have literally walked me into the journey of building apps for parents of children and fur-babies. I sincerely wish you a lifetime of happiness, with many belly laughs along the way.”
Tara O’Connell, Founder