BIG FEELINGS

Its made her the most influential parenting expert since Dr. Spock.

- Kathryn Jezer-Morton

Dr. Becky Kennedy reassures anxious caregivers that they can be trained to navigate meltdowns and sibling squabbles.

BECKY KENNEDY, a child psychologist known as Dr. Becky to her 2.4 million Instagram followers-making her one of the most influential figures in contemporary parenting-believes that parents should approach their roles with the same degree of seriousness as medical students training to be doctors. "To me, being a parent is that level of importance of a job," she told me recently.

Kennedy first rose to prominence on social media during the darkest lockdown days of the pandemic by making simple front-facing Instagram videos in which she role-played common scenarios—a child who is anxious, a child who lashes out angrily at a sibling—and offered suggestions for specific things for parents to say and do. The promise of a parenting script turned out to be a relief for floundering, isolated parents. Since then, her company, Good Inside, has become a parenting-advice juggernaut that encompasses a best-selling book, a podcast, and a subscription-based online community and content library ($276 a year) on top of a steady stream of videos on Instagram and TikTok.

In October, I went to see Kennedy, who lives on the Upper West Side, across town at the 92nd Street Y, where she was appearing in conversation with Chelsea Clinton. Before the event, impeccably turned-out uptown moms lined the sidewalk in anticipation. A security guard hollered down the block, announcing the formation of a line for Chelsea Clinton.

“We’re here for Dr. Becky,” a woman with a Chanel purse corrected him.