Our first children’s book is called 'Everything is Awkward.' And it is a children’s picture book that is really about embracing life’s imperfections. It’s self-deprecating and it’s really what drives the brand. You submitted a photo because you felt you had something awkward to contribute to the community. It’s interesting. We always really wanted to be about all of us, as opposed to like, 'Look at this person.' It’s more about we can relate to the photos that are being submitted. We look at ourselves as a community, a celebration of awkwardness, a very inclusive thing. Once things start going in that world, you have people saying, 'What do you think about putting them on socks?' (We thought,) 'Let’s think about the things that really make sense for the brand.' And then there’s all these different things that kind of come up. Our first book became a New York Times best-seller - and opened up the doors to greeting cards you see in Target. we put together our first book, which really launched everything else. Bring me up to date to where you guys are at.Ī: It’s been a process of evolution. I see your cards in Target, and it looks like you have other (merchandise). Q: You went from one awkward photo your mom hung up to this website that’s incredibly popular. View Gallery: Celebrating all things Awkward It caught on and was one of those cult sites. People would send in a postcard and they would write a secret, something they’d never told anyone. I was inspired by this site called Post Secret. Yeah, it’s pretty amazing to see the change, in general, since we started in 2009. If you think about where we were seven years ago, there was no Buzzfeed, Facebook was pretty new. So we decided to start a site and see if we could get people to send in their awkward photos, and that was really the genesis of the idea.Ī: That was started in spring of 2009. I talked to Doug (Chernack), who was my writing partner at the time. And then I thought about it and said, 'Maybe my mom’s on to something here.' Couldn’t understand why she was memorializing this image. I went home one weekend, saw my mom hanging up a photo that, for me, was an awkward photo. ANSWER: It actually started with my mother, who hung up a photo in the house.

Awkward Family Photos by Mike Bender