Brownwood's 'Crock Pot Girls' Amass Million Facebook Fans in 2 Weeks

The simple idea of a Facebook page to share crock pot recipes has quickly turned into an internet sensation. Already, there have been dozens of blogs and news stories commenting on the instant success of the page and wondering how it gained popularity so quickly.

Originally, the three creators of the page (Allison, Jenna and Nicole) met at a MOPS or "Mothers of Preschoolers" group and developed a friendship. Because MOPS didn't meet during the summer months, the MOPS moms started "Sweet Peas of Brownwood" as a Mother's Day out group and their friendship deepened.

Jenna Marwitz then began babysitting for Nicole Sparks when Jenna became pregnant with her second child. Watching three children was too busy - she was pregnant and exhausted, so she decided to start cooking in a crock pot. This developed into Crock Pot Mondays.

Jenna, Nicole and Allison then decided to develop a Facebook page two weeks ago (August 19th was the first post) to share their crock pot recipes between their friends. Allison came up with the name "Crock Pot Girls," and they figured there would be about 30-40 friends join the page, according to Jenna.

"We giggled when the Facebook page grew to 700 fans," stated Jenna. "Within a few days, the page went viral."

Jenna explained that they started the page to just share between friends, never intending it to be a business venture. Friends urged the girls to launch a website and make a business of it after the huge response on Facebook. Jenna stated they then talked to her brother-in-law who set up a makeshift website that crashed quickly from the heavy volume of Facebook fans that visited. The girls said that they are working on finding a host that can handle the traffic that has been generated through Facebook.

In fact, Jenna said that it has become so overwhelming that Allison has decided not to continue as a Crock Pot Girl. The two remaining girls, Jenna and Nicole, plan to take their Facebook page and turn it into a business.

"We didn't plan to start as a business, but if something comes out of it, that's great," said Jenna.

Jenna Marwitz is a 26-year-old stay-at-home mom who watches four children during the day (including her own) and is a coach's wife.  Nicole Sparks is the co-owner of an insurance business with her husband, a part time stay-at-home mom and runs a dance studio.

The girls said that their husbands have enjoyed the crock pot creations and have become excited about their wives' success; however that wasn't the case in the beginning.

"My husband didn't think it was a big deal at first, then when we reached 500,000 fans, he got excited," said Jenna. "He didn't understand the scale of it until we were featured on MSN's home page today."

Another Facebook page was created by an unknown fan of the Crock Pot Girls, which is titled "Help the Crock Pot Girls be on Good Morning America." The page asks fans to "Help these mommies, who started a Facebook phenomenon, be invited to be guests on Good Morning America."

"That would be the wildest thing to be on a television show just from starting a Facebook page," said Jenna.

This all hit the Crock Pot Girls in a matter of days and they are very overwhelmed and stunned by their instant fame.

"We have our hands full with (nearly) 1 million fans and 4 kids under the age of 5; we don't know which is more overwhelming," joked Jenna.

The Crock Pot Girls' Facebook page has surpassed several celebrity pages in a short period of time including Martha Stewart (235,000 fans), Ryan Seacrest (779,000 fans), and Good Morning America (330,000 fans).

At the time this article was published, the Crock Pot Girls had 1.04 million Facebook fans and counting.

Click here to visit the Crock Pot Girls' Facebook page.