mamas rock: sara winter
Filed Under Mamas Rock | March 11, 2011
This month in mamas rock we’re featuring Sara Winter, founder of the newly launched Squag.com, a website for parents of kids with ASD (autism spectrum disorders). The site hosts an application that helps ASD kids self-reflect and communicate with one another.
We do include our full q&a with these rockin’ mamas, so today’s article is a bit longer than usual.
How many children do you have and what are their ages?
I’ve got two boys, ages 5 and 2.
What is Squag™?
Squag.com is a website for parents of kids with ASD (autism spectrum disorders). The website hosts an application that we created to help these incredible kids self-reflect and communicate with one another.
What inspired Squag™?
I have an eleven year-old nephew on the autism spectrum. I’ve been lucky enough to be his aide at home and at school for almost nine years. Watching him navigate his daily life has been the most impactful experience in my life to date.
He’s the strongest and most open-hearted person I know.
What gave you the confidence to take it from idea to reality?
I came at it purely from the perspective of … why not?
It made sense to me that kids with ASD should have a safe place online that reflected their needs and appreciated their differences.
Ironically, I was the least tech savvy mom out there. But as I built Squag™ I got a much-needed education.
Every step of the way, I thought long and hard about all the reasons it couldn’t be done and made the conscious choice to trust my instincts and move forward.
Why was it important to you to create this online space for tweens and teens on the autism spectrum?
When my sister received a diagnosis for my nephew almost ten years ago, there was no Google, Twitter or Facebook. It was an incredibly isolating experience for them.
Now, online communities have become the biggest support for a newly diagnosed family, and also for the adult ASD population. I thought that kids with ASD (with the support of their parents) should have that opportunity too.
What is your background? How did you bring your existing skills to this project?
Strangely enough, my background is in theatre. I was fulfilling a lifelong dream of performing on Broadway when an injury brought me back home to Canada. A month later I started working as my nephew’s aide, and that pivotal decision, was definitely one of the best ones I’ve ever made. Being with him every day changed the way I looked at everything.
I approach business the same way I approached both performing and working directly with kids; as an art.
What are the rewards of creating your own business?
The people I’ve met have been the biggest reward. Interviewing people for the blog and hearing their personal stories constantly inspires me to be better at what I do.
I’ve had to ask for help and surround myself with people I trust and respect in order to build Squag™. I have a new appreciation for people’s talents, areas of expertise, and the way we all contribute to the big picture.
I love it when I meet other moms who have started their own business and are super passionate about it; and I love even more, when we can collaborate and all bring something to the table.
Do you have any tips or resources for parents of children (of any age) who are on the autism spectrum for dealing with the online space?
Filtering through all the technology can be incredibly overwhelming. We built our app to be as easy to administer as possible. The kids’ side of the technology doesn’t work without the parental involvement and vice versa.
My advice to parents of kids with ASD is to join Twitter (I know crazy right?) It seems so superficial at first glance, but for people in the ASD community it’s actually very intimate. You can find great resources, filter out all the noise and find support from people going through the same thing in real time.
Know a mama you think rocks? Let us know all about her. Going forward we’ll be alternating between entrepreneurial mamas and non-entrepreneurial mothers from month to month.
2 Responses to “mamas rock: sara winter”
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Let us know what you think or share your great finds with us so we can share them with other Vancouver mothers!
Thanks so much for telling us about Sara! We’d like to feature her on our site as well, to spread the word about what she’s doing a little farther. Keep up the great work!
[...] “There was no Google, Twitter, or Facebook,” back then, Sara says in an interview with YoYoMama. “Now, online communities have become the biggest support for a newly diagnosed family, and [...]