Inside LA's invite-only mom group that's better than Google

LOS ANGELES -- At first, Cathlene Pineda was reluctant to join the Atwater Village Moms' Facebook group.

The jazz pianist and composer doesn't particularly like Facebook, and she's wary of online communities. But she acquiesced because, as she put it, "Some other moms were like, 'You have to be part of this group.'"

After joining in 2021, she realized it had benefits. When she needed a trustworthy mechanic, the Atwater Moms told her who to call. When she was ready to sleep train her baby, they recommended books like "The Happy Sleeper" and "The No-Cry Sleep Solution." When she went to Vegas, they told her to stay at the Cosmopolitan.

Then, a few months into her membership, she was diagnosed with late-stage breast cancer. She had a 2-year-old and a 4-year-old at home and couldn't imagine how she would get through the long, involved treatment her doctors prescribed. Not sure