By JULIE MORAN ALTERIO THE JOURNAL NEWS (Original publication: August 26, 2007) The slogan T-shirt, for decades the medium of choice for expressing youthful rebellion, has found a new generation of enthusiasts: moms. Messages like "I don't do cupcakes," "I need a nap" and "Nanny deprived" pick up where "Sex, drugs, and rock and roll" left off. Today's Gen X and Gen Y moms are donning message T's to express a new zest for child rearing while keeping a healthy sense of irony about the label of "mom." "We're proud to be moms now. The T-shirts are a way of embracing it with humor," said Madeline Smith, a stay-at-home mother of two from Pelham who wears a T-shirt that says, "I need a playdate." Joy Rose of Hastings-on-Hudson, a musician and mother of four teens, said the T-shirt trend is "empowering" for women because they can simultaneously embrace motherhood and smash stereotypes. "This new crop of moms is saying, 'Enough. We're going to rebrand and reidentify,' " Rose said. Rose, who founded the Mamapalooza music festival and performs with the band Housewives on Prozac, created a "Mom is not my real name" T-shirt to reflect her feelings about her dual roles. "I embrace my role as a mother. I love my role as a mother. But I am also Joy Rose, human being and rocker," Rose said. Beth Feldman, a 37-year-old New Rochelle mom and public relations executive, sells a T-shirt with the message "I don't do cupcakes" on her Role Mommy Web site. The idea came from the real-life experience of being snubbed at a school bake sale for bringing Dunkin' Donuts, a story she tells in her book, "Peeing in Peace: Tales and Tips for Type A Moms." "Women who can relate to what we're all going through are going to laugh when they see the shirts," Feldman said. "You don't want to take yourself too seriously." Young moms also want to look cute, and hot if possible. The "cupcakes" shirt might have a feminist message, but it also has pink glitter and rhinestones. "There are a lot of women who have left the work force who are full-time moms, and you still want to be a hip mom," Feldman said. Larchmont native Liz Gumbinner, editor of the Brooklyn-based blog Cool Mom Picks, said there's been an explosion of "mommy" T's in the past year. "People are jumping on this trend. It's easy to make a T-shirt and market it. The audience is out there, and there are blogs like ours that are willing to write them up," she said. T's with messages like "Recovering pregnant chick" say "I'm still cool," Gumbinner said. They also are a conversation starter at the playground. "Moms are looking for community in any way they can. Putting a slogan on a T-shirt helps them connect with like-minded parents and say, 'I'm one of you,' " Gumbinner said. "People are embracing parenthood, not just as a phase of life, but as a culture." Moms in their 20s and 30s are ushering in a new wave of "extreme" parenting, said Kristin Bennett, senior director of research and trends at the Intelligence Group, a market research firm that focuses on Gen Y and Gen X. Younger women who saw their baby-boomer elders trying to "do it all" and getting pulled between the boardroom and the playground are focusing on parenting. "We felt very abandoned by our parents, and we are determined to do a better job, and do it with more passion and more devotion. It's a shift on a societal level. You see the return of the stay-at-home mom, particularly as a status symbol," Bennett said. When the Intelligence Group interviewed more than 1,000 mothers ages 18 to 40, nine out of 10 said being a mother is their No. 1 source of happiness. These moms are writing thousands of mommy blogs, avidly following the goings-on of their celebrity counterparts - and shopping for gear and garb that advertises their zeal for parenting. "Moms today want to celebrate their motherhood and be identified as such," Bennett said. While this might seem like a lot of cultural weight for a garment made from a few ounces of cotton, the T-shirt is an ideal agent to deliver a message about its wearer, said Danielle Friedland, publisher of the Celebrity Baby Blog. "The T-shirt has always been a way to send a message to the world about your beliefs, political, religious, what band you like, your alma mater, whatever," she said. Friedland's "Still breastfeeding" T-shirt reflects her priorities. "My husband says, 'I can't believe you wear that in public,' but I say I'm proud of it. I'm doing a little activism. I'm promoting breast-feeding," she said. The T-shirts are irresistible to attention-loving celebrity moms, Friedland said. Jaime Pressly ("Body after Dezi"), Gwyneth Paltrow ("Yoga mama"), Kate Hudson ("Loving my buddha belly") and Salma Hayek ("Sexy. Stylish. Pregnant") are feeding the trend when they appear in magazines or on TV wearing the shirts. Eileen Schneidman, a cofounder of Planet Mom T-shirts, said being featured on "The View" two years ago gave her fledgling company fame. "The response was overwhelming," she said. Schneidman, a Wilton, Conn., stay-at-home mom of three children under 12, said that despite the celebrity allure, Planet Mom T-shirts poke fun at the less glamorous parts of mothering with messages like "Chicken nuggets or pizza?" "Much of our day-in and day-out tasks, like chauffeuring, or scheduling play dates, seem absurd, but at the same time, necessary, so why not laugh about it," Schneidman said. Shari Ship of Briarcliff Manor said she bought Planet Mom's "Secretary of transportation" shirt because she drives about 200 miles a week shuttling her kids between activities. "As a mother of three children, I am constantly running to music lessons, religious school, doctor appointments, sporting events and practices. The only thing to do is be thankful and to laugh," she said. Amy Tiemann, author of "Mojo Mom: Nurturing Your Self While Raising a Family," said ironic T's are a way to poke humor at a role that's traditionally been revered. "There is a strong cultural taboo against saying negative things about motherhood, so a subversive 'joke' may be the only way to say what we really think." http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070826/BUSINESS01/708260328/1066 Questions? Custom order request? Want to know when we get new stuff? Please email us! Photography by Kristin Burke of Peter Baker Studios. 2005, 2006, 2007 & 2008 Planet Mom. All Rights Reserved.