Why Women (and we!) Love Pinterest

No one would call the Momentum Resources folks technology gurus, but it's well-documented that we were all very early adopters of Pinterest. Wildly pinning away while our husbands glanced over our laptops in the evening, my business partners and I have spent the last year or so building Boards on everything from bake sale recipes to the perfect business casual meeting outfit. Which is harder than a plain ol' navy suit any day!

And why have we spent so much time - our most precious commodity- on Pinterest? Because we just don't have enough time to be creative for all of the demands in our life. While taking a break from planning a dinner party with business associates I look for new recipes for next week's Meal Swap. When my four year old begs to dress up like a star-bellied sneetch for Dr. Seuss Week in Pre-K, I'm scanning the Boards to see if anyone else out there has had to come up with Seuss costume after bedtime with materials already on hand.

Sure I can eek out a little creativity on my latest knitting project or even on a driveway chalk masterpiece with my boys, but Pinterest allows me to be way more fabulous than I already am. Look no further for juice-box robots for your next 5 year old birthday party, or exactly the right hammock for your garden this summer. Someone else has already figured it out and shared it openly with the world. This wide-open community approach to solving all of our (admittedly first world) problems has taken what used to exist in neighborhood coffee klatches and list servs and expanded it into a large social network that's displayed in a clean, visually appealing format. Or, more dangerously, on your smart phone.

I know that the business model is untested (revenue anyone?) and copyright issues abound for artists, but right now Pinterest helps me solve many of my daily challenges that had otherwise taken up significant brainpower and emotional energy.

No, Pinterest can't revive the fried share drive in the office or get my 9 year old to focus on his darned math homework, not yet anyway, but somehow lending ideas and inspiration to the other challenges in my day-to-day activities breathes new life for solutions to my offline problems.

Here's what I had to say about Pinterest to NPR. What's the best way you have used Pinterest?