Built by a mum, for every mum.
The story of how LilTots went from a difficult moment to something thousands of Australian families now rely on.
Hi, I'm Mel!
"I built LilTots because I needed it to exist. And I suspect a lot of Australian mums feel exactly the same way."
I got made redundant as a single mum.
It came out of nowhere. One day I had a job and a plan, and the next I had neither. As a single mum with a mortgage and a daughter depending on me, the pressure was immediate and real.
I could have spent that time panicking. Instead I spent it building something I'd wanted to exist for years: a marketplace for pre-loved baby and kids items that actually felt safe to use.
Facebook Marketplace wasn't cutting it.
Like most parents I'd tried selling my daughter's outgrown clothes and toys online. And like most parents I'd experienced the lowball offers, the ghost buyers, the no-shows, and the sinking feeling of handing over an item and hoping the bank transfer actually arrived.
There was no platform built specifically for parents. No payment protection. No way to filter by your baby's age or clothing size. No community that understood the very specific chaos of trying to manage a constantly outgrowing wardrobe while also, you know, raising an actual human being.
So I built it myself.
Every spare hour over six months went into building LilTots. Early mornings before my daughter woke up. Late nights after she went to bed. Weekends. School holidays. I learned things I never expected to need to know: about payment systems and app stores and shipping APIs and legal agreements.
But I kept going because I genuinely believed Australian parents deserved something better. A marketplace built with them in mind from the very beginning, not bolted on as an afterthought to a platform designed for something else entirely.
Safety. Community. Second chances.
LilTots was built on three beliefs. That parents deserve to buy and sell without worrying about being scammed. That pre-loved items deserve a second life instead of landfill. And that the community of Australian mums and dads is full of incredibly generous, resourceful, and kind people who just need the right platform to connect.
Every feature in LilTots, from the escrow payments and the verified badges to the Lucky Dip Bags and the dispute protection, exists because a real parent needed it. Because I needed it.
If you're reading this you're probably a parent, which means you already know how fast kids grow. The tiny onesie that fit last month is too small today. The toy they couldn't live without is forgotten in a box. The pram that cost a fortune sits in the garage.
LilTots exists to make sure all of those things find their way to another family who needs them, safely, easily, and with a little more peace of mind than a Facebook Marketplace transaction at 8pm on a Tuesday.
I built this for you. I hope it makes your life a little easier and your home a little less full of things that deserve to be loved by someone else's kid.
What we believe in
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Download LilTots free and join thousands of Australian parents buying and selling pre-loved baby and kids items safely.