[Note to readers: If you are pregnant, or if have an infant or toddler, there are many meaningful ways the New Parents Expo can help you on your journey into parenting and family, including hearing Liz Lange give a talk. The New Parents Expo is taking place on October 15 and 16 in NYC. Click here for more info and to register.]

Pregnant or not, there are probably very few women in America who are not well acquainted with Liz Lange and her role in maternity fashion. After years of running her own high-end maternity boutique, Lange has come to define cool, affordable maternity fashion in her pioneering partnerships with major retailers like Target and Nike. Her sensibility honors a woman's desire to be fashionable and comfortable during a highly transitional stage in her life. But if you spend some time with Lange, you'll discover that her world is more than working with fabrics and fittings.

This New York native and mother of two credits her own mom with introducing her to the thrill of getting her hands on that perfect buy. But she hadn't really considered fashion as a career until after college, when she was inspired by an up-and-coming designer. These days, in addition to her thriving maternity line at Target, Lange has a ready-to-wear women's line with the Home Shopping Network, a fashion website called Shopafrolic.com, and she speaks regularly on the importance of entrepreneurship. As a devoted mom to Gus and Alice, Lange deeply values family time. And apparently there's another designer at home who's even more talented than she is!

When did you decide that you wanted to have a career in fashion?

I studied Literature at Brown and thought I was going to be a writer. After college, I went to work at Vogue. I loved fashion, so it was a great place to be, but I worked for the Books and Culture Editor. While I was there, I met a struggling young designer and fell in love with what he was doing. I actually begged him to let me come and work for him. So I left this glamorous world at Vogue and went to a very gritty office in the Garment Center. Because there were just three of us, I learned everything out of necessity. It was kind of a crash course in the business of fashion. But even then, he was the designer, not me. Being a designer never crossed my mind.

How did you make the transition into maternity fashion?

I was in my twenties and my friends started getting married and getting pregnant. The designer I was working for had a struggling business and my friends would shop wholesale from us. They would come in wearing something oversized and then put on one of our more fitted dresses, which I thought made them look so much better and thinner. When I asked why they weren't shopping at maternity stores, everyone would say, "You don't understand, maternity clothes are awful!" They were spending a lot of money on clothes that were too big, paying a fortune to have them altered, and the clothes were still ill-fitting. It made me realize that pregnancy is a time when women need to shop. You're going to spend money, because none of your old clothes fit. I couldn't get the idea out of my mind, so I went to my designer friend and said, "I know how you can turn your business around. Do a maternity line!" He thought I was crazy. It was so unglamorous and there were no pregnant celebrities at the time. But I found myself up at night sketching—even though I can't really draw!—and thinking about stretchy fabrics I could use. No one was using stretch fabrics back then. I finally realized that if I didn't do this line and someone else did it, I would never forgive myself. So, I did it.

So how did your partnership with Target come about?

I was making clothing one at a time for women who came to see me, so it was really expensive. I began to grow and within three years, I was dressing pregnant celebrities and getting a lot of press. I opened a flagship boutique on Madison Avenue, one in Beverly Hills and one on Long Island. But I was also getting letters from customers who wanted to wear my clothes but didn't have a celebrity body or budget. It got me thinking about how I could bring the line to more people. After September 11th happened, the marketplace changed. I thought about how my high-end business would survive and all of those customer letters and decided to approach Target. Back then they hadn't started partnering with designers like Isaac Mizrahi and Cynthia Rowley. Within a year, we rolled out a secondary line of Liz Lange to all of their stores. They also had their own private label maternity designs, but in a few years, I had taken over the entire maternity department as it exists today. After almost ten years, I think it has been one of Target's longest standing designer partnerships. People told me that if I partnered with Target, my high-end business would suffer, but everything worked out and it's just been amazing. Even prior to the Target deal, I was approached by Nike and did a line of Liz Lange maternity athletic apparel from 2000 to 2005. That was also unusual because prior to me, Nike had only partnered with athletes. I've been really lucky to have had licensing deals with Nike and Target.

What is your involvement with Liz Lange for Target Maternity today?

I spend most of my time these days being the face of the brand. I record voice-overs for the Liz Lange website within Target, do all of the press opportunities and answer customer questions. I sold the brand in 2007, but I stay on and completely manage the Target relationship. Additionally, I partnered with my new owners to create a women's line called Completely Me by Liz Lange which is exclusive to HSN and soon to launch on the shopping network in Canada. It's a line of mix-and-match women's ready-to-wear based on some of the figure-flattering design principles I learned from doing maternity clothing for so many years.

You've been able to pursue other projects, as well. Can you tell me more?

I started a women's shopping e-newsletter with my sister called Shopafrolic.com. Everyday we post a beauty, apparel or accessory item that we really love. We both say what we like about the item or what we might wear it with. A photo of the item takes you to the website where you can buy it. We try to keep the price points reasonable. Anyone can show a beautiful Prada dress, but we'll show what we found at Forever 21 or Zara. There are also designer interviews and picks with people like Tory Burch, Nina Garcia or Tommy Hilfiger. We've even featured Kim Kardashian. We really do it for the love of shopping.

If you could collaborate with any designer, who would it be?

It would either be Michael Kors, Prada or Oscar De La Renta. I just worship their work so much. With Michael Kors, I love his classic, All-American, Upper East Side style—that classic "lady who lunches" look. His understanding of American sportswear is just so chic in my mind. I love Oscar De La Renta's use of heavy embroidery, embellishment and Latin influence. I find it so sexy, beautiful and feminine. And Prada creates those perfect minimalist pieces that you just need.

Tell me about your two children.

I have a 12-year-old son, Gus, and a 10-year-old daughter, Alice. My daughter is an aspiring fashion designer. She's much more talented than I am! She's very creative and a very good artist. My son is into skateboarding and getting into trouble! They have very high-spirited personalities.

How would you describe yourself as a mom?

I think I'm very loving and pretty easygoing. I'm not a helicopter mom. Maybe because I grew up in the city, I'm comfortable with them going places by themselves as long as they keep up with me on their phones. My mom was very strict with me, so I think I'm kind of a pushover. Plus they're great kids who I can trust. I'm very close with them.

What is it like raising your kids in New York City?

I grew up on the Upper East Side, so it never crossed my mind to raise them anywhere else. We do get away to our house on East Hampton in the summer, so I feel like we have the best of both worlds. I'm a diehard New Yorker, born and bred.

How do you balance the demands of your career with the responsibilities of being a mom?

I think that's a funny question. When I hear it, I imagine myself perfectly balanced on a beam doing a pirouette, but that is not the reality of my life. It's a juggle and pieces are always falling. Sometimes I'm at the office and I feel like I should be at home and vice versa. It never gets easier. I feel really lucky to have great help in the office and great help at home, which makes all the difference in the world. I don't want to pretend I'm Superwoman. I couldn't do it without great help. I really look up to women who do it with fewer resources. I think as women and moms, we're all just doing our best.

What do you see in the future for your business?

It's so hard for me to see the future, because if you had asked me ten years ago I wouldn't have said deals with Nike or Target. I think the great thing in this business is that anything can happen. You never know what's next. I'm really excited about my continued work with Target, my line for HSN and growing the Shopafrolic e-newsletter and website. I'm also in the initial phases of working on a book about being an entrepreneur. I speak around the country to entrepreneurs, and I'm really passionate about the subject.

What advice would you give women who want to start their own businesses?

The most important advice ever given to me is that you have to remember that until someone does something new, no one ever thinks it's a good idea. You really need to learn to shut out the naysayers. There's always negativity surrounding any new idea. And as women, we can be so hard on ourselves. Don't focus so much on what you can and can't do.