Colombian songstress Shakira is set to launch a new app that she hopes will help parents all around the world.
Her app called "Grow," which she will be creating with the support of children's toy and accessory company Fisher-Price, will cater to people across North and Latin America, as the app has activity options available in both English and Spanish.
Shakira said she found that when her son, Milan, now 3, was born, that she was constantly looking for advice and ways to engage him in fun, educational and creative activities. However, when looking for consistent sources for mothering advice and appropriate activities she had to go to various people and places for guidance, including to her own mother and mother-in-law. She even admits to spending hours scouring the internet for parenting tips.
With her new app she hopes she can simplify things for new parents.
"With this app, you can simply use the daily age-appropriate tip or activity sent to you, or you can access the entire library of tips at any time if you're looking for something different or want to focus on a specific developmental category that day," Shakira said.
The key focus of the app is for children to learn with the age-appropriate activities, while it also includes a social media upload feature for parents so they can capture and share moments featuring their child. "I wanted it to be something that wasn't overwhelming, but that was really thorough and offered a rich variety of content," the singer said.
She was inspired to create the app following the birth of her second child, her son, 1-year-old Sasha. At home, Shakira and her partner, Barcelona soccer star Gerard Pique, speak multiple languages. Because of this she found it imperative that her boys learn the different languages at an early age to minimize confusion later in life. "It helps if they are able to associate a person with a language at this early stage, to minimize language confusion. Their father, for example, always speaks to them in Catalan. I try to speak to them in mostly English, but if I switch, I try to not mix two languages in one sentence. Their first words were both 'mama,'" Shakira said.
Shakira emphasized the importance of the app being available in English as well as Spanish. "There are many mothers in Latin American countries that have less support than others that I want to help, even a small contribution," she said.
