Soleil Moon Frye has grown from "Punky Brewster" child star to mom, entrepreneur, app creator, and host of the Emmy-nominated "Home Made Simple Show."
"Punky Brewster" made actress Soleil Moon Frye an idol to millions of young children growing up in the 1980s, and now grown-up Frye has become a role model to moms. The mother of three opened the first eco-friendly baby store, The Little Seed, in 2007, then developed a successful kids' clothing line for Target and released children's book "Let's Get This Party Started." She offers mothers inspiration and information on her Moonfrye.com Web site, Facebook, and Twitter. Through Moonfrye, her tech startup, she and veteran tech entrepreneur Kara Nortman have developed the Moonfrye app. The free, family-friendly picture-making tool is built on auto-detect technology that enables users to precisely crop people out of existing images and place them in themed worlds -- think mermaid, circus, '80s -- with plenty of virtual stickers.
What inspired your Moonfrye app?
Most importantly, my kids are constantly my inspiration. I wanted to take a break from acting to be a hands-on mom, but I'm still a creative person, so it was amazing, because all these things -- the books, the Web site, the apps -- involve my little ones. I get to do so much of it with my kids, and that's hit a chord with parents like me, because they want to be connected to but not spoken down to.
I love photo-booking with my kids. My girls spend hours doing this kind of stuff with me. I think it's connected to moms and dads of all ages, and something that they love to share also.
Do you have any tips for new users?
There's this whole Make Your Own feature, which is something that you can find easily, but people may not realize just how cool some of the things you can do are. You can take a picture of the Eiffel Tower and then put your hand on top of it, reaching out, etc. It's very cool. Also, the Auto-Detect feature, which is so awesome, because it cuts you out in different ways.
As the "mommy ambassador" for Target, if you had to give one piece of advice to new mothers, what would it be?
The biggest thing is mom's instincts, which is just following your instincts as a parent and knowing it's OK not to be perfect, to make mistakes. We should not be so hard on ourselves. I think we live in an era where we go online to research everything, and there's so much information. I think it's about going back to old school and trusting your instincts, and not comparing yourself to everybody else. I think of my mom, and she had her friends to go off of. But now we have every single person online to go on and think, "This is really making me feel like a horrible parent." But we live our lives so much in public, and that can sometimes beat us up.
There are so many stories out there about how celebrity moms are choosing to raise their children. Jenny McCarthy, Mayim Bialik, and Alicia Silverstone's parenting choices have been dissected by the media and the public. What are your thoughts on that?
I'm such a believer in everybody making their own choices. We all do what's right for us, and sometimes we make mistakes and try harder the next time. I love Alicia; she's a sweetheart. The way she raises her kids is great for her. The way I raise my kids is great for me. Everyone has a different style of parenting, and I just want to be respectful of everyone's style.
Speaking of styles, I keep reading that today parents are too quick to congratulate their children just for trying. Is that a good or bad thing?
My husband and I are so different. I'll say, "It's all amazing," and Jason will say, "That's great, but you can do better." Everyone's different, and I think that's the balance of things. I do my best and find myself very protective of my kids. It'll be interesting to see how this generation turns out.
You've turned out great, especially for a child star. How did you avoid the pitfalls of child stardom?
I think we so often hear the horror stories about kids that grew up in the business, because it sells magazines. But there are so many that succeeded, like Ron Howard and Leonardo DiCaprio and Fred Savage. The other side is that I have an awesome family. My mom was so wonderful in raising us, and our house was always a summer camp with so many fun things to do and family and extended family and friends over a lot. I would come home from set and be roller-skating in the neighborhood, and we had a horse and rabbits and chickens. We were never robbed of childhoods, so that was the most important thing to our growing up healthy.
Why did Punky Brewster become such a role model for millions of kids?
I think Punky was such an amazing character. I hold her so close to my heart, because she was such a dynamic, special person that, at times, I don't know where she ended and I began. We were so much the same in special ways. Also, Brandon Tartikoff [NBC's president of entertainment], who was my mentor in so many ways, was such an incredible pioneer in the TV industry and filled the programming at the time -- "Cheers," "Family Ties," "The Cosby Show," and "The Golden Girls" -- with so much heart and lessons. Brandon, my dog on the show, was named after him.
The producers were so great, where they would take our life experiences as kids and turn them into episodes. I wanted to be an astronaut, and we were watching the Challenger disaster in the schoolroom on set when it happened. I was devastated, and they turned that into an episode. We had topics; we dealt with "just say no" to drugs. I was 9 years old, sitting in a tree house, and someone pulls out a bag of pills and says, "Which one do you want?" I just don't think on a show today that you would see anything like that. But it was so honest and something kids were dealing with, and it wasn't brushed under the rug.
So I think Punky became a leader for standing up for yourself, and the fact that she was so alone and found this amazing man that took her in, gave it so much heart that people could relate to her strength and survival instincts. We dealt with bullying, and people really had that character to connect with. I just don't think you have characters like that on TV anymore. It's so sad. I find Punky has become a hit with this next generation, because parents want to teach their children about these different morals and lessons.
If the show were on today, what topic would you want to cover?
Probably cyberbullying. I think it would be the evolution of what we dealt with at that time, where today you're dealing with it in real life and also on social networks.
After "Punky Brewster," at the age of 13, you hosted your own talk show, aptly titled "Girl Talk." What are your fondest memories of working on that show?
I was so boy crazy, so it was great, 'cause I got to interview all these cute boys and got to go to concerts. I got to interview New Kids on the Block. That Donnie Wahlberg had this gorgeous brother that I had a massive crush on named Mark Wahlberg. He was so cool, and he was hanging out, and I just had this massive crush on him. I think Joey Lawrence's performance where he sang the slow song, too.
Congratulations on the recent Emmy nomination for "Home Made Simple Show," by the way. What appealed to you about joining the OWN show?
When it's Oprah, you gotta do it. We wrapped this season, and it's been such a great experience to work with these families, who are so sweet and deserving. These are people who have done so much for everybody else but so little for themselves. The best part of the experience was being able to go in and be a part of their lives for a week.
Switching gears, what are your top apps, other than your own?
It's Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, which I use on a daily basis. And of course all my camera apps -- Camera Plus and MullerPhoto, because I'm obsessed with taking beautiful photos and often editing from my phone. Then Uber, of course.
