Lisa Milbrand

Traveling With Kids

After years of writing romantic travel pieces for the newlywed set, I've started targeting my demographic—parents with young kids—as a contributor to FamilyVacationCritic.com. I shared my tips for hitting Sin City with kids, and my thoughts on why traveling with kids is important.

Adoption in the News

Adoption has been big in the headlines these days—and it's not always good news. I shared my take on the current adoption situation with iVillage.

I also created a huge retrospective on the Chinese adoption program—including discussion of the possibilities of child trafficking within the program—for Adoptive Families.

iVillage

As an adoptive parent, I was pretty peeved with the snapshot of adoption showcased in the previews for the movie Orphan. I wrote my commentary: Orphan Movie: Hurtful to Adoption? for iVillage...which got the usual nasty comments from non-adoptive parents.

Parenting

Potty training my oldest daughter was a grueling, 1-year process. Fortunately, after writing this story about battles with our oldest, I've learned a few great tricks to try on our youngest.

Adoptive Families

I’m a regular contributor to this bimonthly parenting magazine focused on the needs of adoptive parents. Adoption has become a personal passion of mine, as my daughters were both adopted from China, and I find the subjects I cover for the magazine extremely compelling. Two of my favorite stories are Daughters in Demand, which examines the gender imbalance in international adoption, and The Reluctant Family, which helps readers who may have a spouse or family member who isn’t so keen on the idea of adoption.

Budget Travel

I’ve written two stories for Budget Travel: In Tight With the Locals offered tips to help you raise a glass properly around the globe, and The Bigger the Boat, the Bigger the Splash showcased cool new features on the top cruise fleets. 

Modern Bride

I’ve had a long and prosperous career with this top bridal magazine, rising through the ranks from assistant to the editor in chief to top editor of the magazine’s 17 regional sister publications. So, as you can imagine, I’ve written a bridal story or ten (and a book to boot). 

Here are a couple of web-friendly features:

10 Things You’ll Forget to Do

Ladies Night

Parents

A short piece in Women’s Health inspired my article, Can You Build a Better Baby? The article quoted a study linking exercise during pregnancy to a higher IQ in the baby. But after further research, I found out the study had been done on monkeys—not exactly a perfect comparison.