uPumpItUp.com - Motivational Challenges for Women

Starlet Mandy Moore is the face of a new site for women, launched by Kraft Foods. uPumpItUp offers a place for women to connect and collectively challenge themselves to achieve. You can create your own challenge or join an existing public challenge, and invite friends to join you. Challenges can be public or private, and members can use a challenge’s forum to connect, share, and to help one another achieve designated milestones along the way. As far at the challenge topics, pretty much anything healthy and positive goes. For instance, there are challenges like “write 3 handwritten letters,” “host a family get-together,” “beautify your outdoor space,” and “dabble in a new language.” Challenges are divided into four categories: Connect, Express, Inspire, and Explore. With your My Challenges tracker, you can manage all the challenges you’ve joined, measure your progress, and check off the milestones as you go. In addition to Mandy Moore, uPumpItUp has four other experts who contribute information, tips, inspiration, and suggest challenges dealing with various aspects of women’s lives.

“You know that boost of energy you get when you accomplish something, share a great moment with someone, or just try something a little different? Helping you feel that good every day is what uPumpItUp is all about.

This is a place where women inspire each other to do more of the things that make us feel great, and help share that good feeling with others.

Feel daring or calmly introspective? Wildly creative or playfully social? There's a type of community challenge for every mood you're in, and tons of possibilities to explore with friends - both old and new. And each challenge has realistic milestones - so you make actual progress and enjoy more of those ‘Yeah, I did it!’ moments.”

A famous name and face will do wonders for a startup, so Mandy Moore’s connection to uPumpItUp is definitely it’s strongest selling point. Some of the challenges are really interesting, positive, and achievable, based on the step-by-step milestones suggested.

Will some potential users be turned off by the Crystal Light branding all over this page, and the Kraft Foods URL? These aspects make it feel a bit like a big company’s marketing project instead of a genuine social network for women. How much social networking will really go on here, if there is no search function, nowhere to post a detailed personal profile or photos, and no forum for discussion other than commenting on specific challenges’ pages. Can you send private messages to other users?