As a new mom, Stephanie Wilkinson found a huge array of advice and self-help books for everything from toilet training to treating sick toddlers. Somehow, the plethora of how-tos rang hollow to her. "Nothing really addresses the emotional level of motherhood and ... how it changes you," she says.

So Wilkinson and a colleague, Jennifer Niesslein, took their editing experience and developed their own magazine, "Brain, Child: The Magazine for Thinking Mothers." The quarterly publication debuted in April, just in time for the Million Mom March on Washington, D.C., and the two co-editors say it has been enthusiastically received.

There have been two issues of the Harrisonburg-based magazine — with only 3,000 to 4,000 of each printed. Both issues sold out. Brain, Child is available in upscale grocery stores in 42 states and it even has a subscriber in Japan. It also has been picked up by Ingram, the nation’s largest periodicals distributor.

It’s more of a literary magazine about parenting, with news, profiles, essays and book reviews. Instead of 10 sure cures for diaper rash, Brain, Child’s first issue featured an essay titled "When Good Mothers Go Bawd" about one mom’s struggle to swear off swearing. It also included an essay by novelist Barbara Kingsolver. The second issue included "The Watched Pot," about an intelligent 4-year-old still in diapers.

The cover price for the magazine is $5, with a year’s subscription costing $18. Unlike established parenting magazines, Brain, Child is thin on advertising. But while the magazine has yet to break even, the editors are optimistic about its future. Because the magazine is itself an infant, Niesslein and Wilkinson are still trying to figure out their target audience.

"Our basic philosophy is that there’s a million ways to be a good mother and we should all relax and give each other a break," Wilkinson says. While the duo originally expected their readers would be mothers with enough leisure time to join book clubs, they’ve found that they come from all walks of life. One thing they do know: "Brain, Child is about the mother, the parent," Wilkinson says. "It’s not about the child."

They have no shortage of material to fill their pages. "The minute we floated the idea we got so many submissions, we didn’t know what to do with them all," Wilkinson says.

The bulk of the magazine is made up of these submissions, Niesslein says. "Instead of relying on professional experts, [Brain, Child features] the people who are actually doing the parenting."