Romy doesn’t quite recognize herself in photos yet, but she will soon. The 15-month-old New Yorker has a Polaroid from every day of the first six months of her life—each one scanned and saved onto two external hard drives. She’s in portraits, paintings and illustrations created by friends of her mother, 32-year-old art director and model Julia Restoin Roitfeld (daughter of former French Vogue editor Carine Roitfeld). And she’s the headliner of Roitfeld’s motherhood website, Romy & the Bunnies.
Romy is part of a generation of babies growing up not just in front of cameras, but also with an immediate online following. Websites like Romy & the Bunnies and Annemarie Lawless’s A Little Muse arose as creative, well-connected and often-photographed women became moms and wanted to present their little ones to the world. “She’s my inspiration,” says Roitfeld. “I want to share her because I’m so in love with her.”
But Romy & the Bunnies—the name of which is a nod to both Romy’s stuffed animals and Roitfeld’s love of vintage Playboys—is as much a service as it an homage. Roitfeld posts stylish baby finds, throwback photos and interviews by and with other “industry” moms, like Fabiola Beracasa and Pippa Vosper, and those within her own social circle, which is conveniently full of new mothers. “Thank God,” she says, “because I didn’t know anything—I’d never even babysat.” (Her baby-shower list came together thanks to a close friend who’d just had her own first child.) Now it’s comparing “what you’re using for stretch marks, how you’re losing the weight and whether you are letting your baby cry” says Roitfeld. “It’s good to have friends who have the same kind of lifestyle so you can ask for advice.” And, of course, for the occasional stunning portrait.
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