Melanie Notkin Reveals the 2013 Savvy Auntie® Coolest Toy Award Winners

Toy Expert and America’s Savvy Auntie®, Melanie Notkin, Reveals the

2013 Savvy Auntie Coolest Toy Award Winners

New York, NY – November 8, 2013 – Melanie Notkin,  founder and CEO of Savvy Auntie, the multiplatform lifestyle brand for aunts by relation, aunts by choice and godmothers, announces her 5th annual list of coolest toys for the 2013 holiday season. In all, 21 toys have made the coveted list this year.

Notkin is the tribal leader for the underrepresented influential niche of American women whom she’s dubbed “Savvy Aunties.”  This powerful demographic of PANKs® (Professional Aunts No Kids) has a strong desire to make the most savvy toy choices each season. With many toy marketers and toy lists focusing on primary caregivers, Notkin created the Savvy Auntie Coolest Toy Awards in 2009 to give aunts and other secondary caregivers the toy-savvy they need to make the best gift choices for the children in their lives. Savvy Aunties may be secondary caregivers, but they are primary gift givers.

Notkin’s annual toy list certainly helps Aunties maintain that “Cool Aunt” status. And Notkin’s toy list also fosters what she’s playfully dubbed: “QualAuntie Time.” The playtime time an Auntie spends with a niece or nephew of any age is quality time - often uninterrupted playtime - an important part of any baby and child’s developmental growth.  Studies show that from pretend play as babies and toddlers to social development and problem solving as big kids, toys that children enjoy playing with are often an important part of their development. Savvy Aunties are giving kids gifts they crave as well as giving them the opportunity to develop necessary skills through having fun.

As a respected toy expert, Notkin meets with toy manufactures and industry analysts to discover the year’s ground-breaking toys – the ones on the top of most nieces’ and nephews’ lists. “I find the most buzzed about toys based on industry outlooks, toy quality, strong pop culture tie-ins, modern twists on the classics - and then I add a little of my own “Savvy Auntuition” to produce this list each year,” Notkin says. “The toys children want to play with the most are the definitely the coolest toy choices an aunt can make.”

2013 Savvy Auntie Coolest Toy Award Winners

There are 21 winners in all, sorted by age range. For more information on each award winner and ‘Why Savvy Auntie Loves It’, visit SavvyAuntie.com/ToyAwards. Please note: prices may vary throughout the holiday season.

Ages 1+

VTech: Go! Go! Smart Wheels - Train Station Playset, Ages 1-3 ($49.99)

Playskool: Sesame Street Big Hugs Elmo, Ages 1-3 ($49.99)

Ages 2+

Mattel: Disney Sofia The First Talking Sofia and Animal Friends, ages 2-8 ($28.99)

Mattel: Disney Planes Wing Control Dusty Crophopper Radio Control Plane, ages 2-7

Ages 3+

Fisher-Price Imaginext Batcave, ages 3-8 ($32.99)

Just Play: Doc McStuffins Deluxe Get Better Check-Up Center, ages 3-5

Mattel: Barbie® Dreamhouse® (New Version), Ages 3-8 ($189.99)

LeapFrog LeapPad Ultra Tablet, ages 4-9 ($149.99)

Ages 4+

Playmates: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles RC Control Shellraiser, Ages 4-9 ($49.99)

Spinmaster: Zoomer, Ages 4 and up, ($99.00)

Thinkway: Despicable Me 2 8-inch Talking Minion – Dave, Ages 4-11 ($34.99)

Spinmaster: Flutterbye Flying Fairy Doll, Ages 4-8 ($27.44)

Blip Toys: Disney Princess Palace Pets Spa Playset, Ages 4-6 (29.99)

Ages 6+

LEGO Friends Heartlake High, Ages 6-12 (39.99)

Ages 8+

Rainbow Loom, Ages 8 and up (19.99)

Mattel Hot Wheels® Car Maker, Ages 8-10 ($49.99)

Nerf® Rebelle Heartbreaker Bow Phoenix, Ages 8 and up ($15.99)

LEGO Legends of Chima Cragger's Command Ship, Ages 8-14 ($89.99)

Ages 10+

LEGO Minecraft, Ages 10+ (34.99)

Activision Publishing, Inc: Skylanders: SWAP Force Starter Pack, Ages 10+ ($74.99)

Disney INFINITY Starter Pack, Age 10+ ($74.99)

Each winning toy is listed on SavvyAuntie.com/Gifts with links to an online retailer and an “Ask a Parent” button to help ensure parental approval when needed. The winning toys earn a 2013 Savvy Auntie Coolest Award Winner seal for promotional purposes, attracting the PANK demographic with Notkin’s ‘stamp of approval.’

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About Savvy Auntie

Founded by Melanie Notkin, Savvy Auntie is the multi-platform lifestyle brand that empowers and engages aunts, serving the PANK demographic discovered and coined by Notkin, and heralded by fabulous kid-loving women everywhere as a modern celebration of Aunthood. Notkin launched SavvyAuntie.com in 2008 and it remains the first and only resource and online community for this demographic. The brand also includes a popular and engaged social media following, Auntie’s Day® - a national day founded by Notkin to honor aunts and godmothers, the Savvy Auntie Coolest Toy Awards and Melanie Notkin’s national bestseller: Savvy Auntie: The Ultimate Guide for Cool Aunts, Great-Aunts, Godmothers and all Women Who Love Kids (Morrow 2011). As a lifestyle expert, toy expert and a taste-maker for children’s trends, Notkin appears on TV and as a spokesperson for brands. For more information, visit: SavvyAuntie.com.

Melanie Notkin appears on TV as taste-maker for children’s trends and is available immediately as a lifestyle expert for Holiday Gift Guide stories and TV segments, as well as other child lifestyle expertise as needed.

For additional information on the Savvy Auntie Coolest Toy Awards or on-air and talent inquiries: Press@SavvyAuntie.com. 

Sixth Annual Auntie’s Day® is Sunday, July 27, 2014

Sixth Annual Auntie’s Day® is Sunday, July 27, 2014
National Day Honoring Aunts and Godmothers founded by Melanie Notkin, Creator of Popular Savvy Auntie® Lifestyle Brand

- Aunthood is a Gift. This Day is Yours. –

NEW YORK—July 29, 2013—Melanie Notkin, founder of Savvy Auntie, the multi-platform lifestyle brand designed for cool aunt, great-aunts, godmothers and all women who love kids and and national bestselling author of SAVVY AUNTIE: The Ultimate Guide for Cool Aunts, Great-Aunts, Godmothers and All Women Who Love Kids (Morrow 2011) announces the date for the sixth annual national day dedicated to honoring and celebrating aunts and godmothers. Auntie’s Day will take place on Sunday, July 27, 2014. Like all official national days of recognition, Auntie’s Day is listed in Chase’s Calendar of Events.

Sponsored by Savvy Auntie, Auntie’s Day, is a time to thank, honor and celebrate the aunt in a child’s life, whether she is an Auntie by Relation (ABR), Auntie by Choice (ABC), or godmother, for everything she does for a child not-her-own.  While all aunts are celebrated on this day, the day is especially poignant to one in five American women who identify as PANKs®, or Professional Aunts No Kids. PANKs self-identify as childless or childfree and have a bond with at least one child by relation or by friendship. A study called The Power of the PANK released in November 2012 by Savvy Auntie and Weber Shandwick, a global PR firm, with KRC Research, revealed that childless aunts are a sizeable segment of younger women with disposable income, dynamic influence, and a digitally-connected lifestyle who are extraordinarily generous with the children in their lives, those children’s parents, and our communities at large. 23 million American women are PANKs and are found to collectively spend $9 billion on gifts for children not-their-own each year.

On Auntie’s Day – a ‘Mother’s Day’ for aunts - aunts and godmothers will be celebrated with special activities and gifts. The official Auntie’s Day web destination (www.AuntiesDay.com) will feature ideas on how parents and nieces and nephews can celebrate the Savvy Auntie in their lives and how aunts can pamper and treat themselves on their special day.

 “It’s time that all women in the American Family Village are honored for their selfless giving to the children in their lives,” says Melanie Notkin. “An aunt is there to provide ‘QualAuntie Time’ and experiences as a loving caregiver and “ConfidAunt” to her nieces and nephews from the day they are born and as they grow up. Many women without children of their own also give tirelessly to children all over the world. These BenevolAunts are due their day to be honored.”

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About Savvy Auntie

Founded by Melanie Notkin, Savvy Auntie is the multi-platform lifestyle brand that empowers and engages aunts, serving the PANK demographic discovered and coined by Notkin, and heralded by fabulous kid-loving women everywhere as a modern celebration of Aunthood. Notkin launched SavvyAuntie.com in 2008 and it remains the first and only resource and online community for this demographic. The brand also includes a popular and engaged social media following, Auntie’s Day – a national day founded by Notkin to honor aunts and godmothers, the Savvy Auntie Coolest Toy Awards and Melanie Notkin’s national bestseller: Savvy Auntie: The Ultimate Guide for Cool Aunts, Great-Aunts, Godmothers and all Women Who Love Kids (Morrow 2011). As a lifestyle expert, toy expert and a taste-maker for children’s trends, Notkin appears on TV and as a spokesperson for brands. For more information, visit: SavvyAuntie.com and PANKPower.com.