Thank you so much to everyone who came! If you missed it and want in next time, let me know if a midday AMA would work better? My brain turns off at 5PM sharp so I sincerely hope any of what I said tonight was useful/fun/worth your time. I almost just signed off "xoxoxo, gossip girl" TO INDICATE STATE OF COGNITIVE FUNCTION. But truly had so much fun with you all. And now - off to my beloved television :)
1. I wish I had known about the hilarious, raw, profane mommy bloggers when I was a new mom struggling with postpartum depression and a lack of community.
2. In reading so many of these women, it's so clear that many of them were writers first and foremost, rather than what momfluencers are now, which is (talented!) marketers, advertisers, photographers, stylists, and businesswomen. This isn't to say that today's momfluencers aren't also skilled writers, just that Instagram is where many of them live and Instagram is an image-based platform, whereas the early blogs were very much personal essay driven.
3. Momfluencing is an established job with an established pipeline, whereas many of the women writing about motherhood on the internet did so without any clear idea of where their writing would take them.
Hi! Wish this was at 9pm when bath/bedtime is over. But very happy to be a subscriber - every newsletter has at least one sentence that makes me gasp “yes exactly!” Thank you for sharing your beautiful writing.
Hi Sara! Thanks for sharing your work. I am wondering your thoughts on lack of informed consent for minors included in momfluencers account? And whether you will explore this in future writings/why did not dive into in your book? Thanks for your time!
How do you like Substack so far do you have any opinions on it versus your own website blog or other platforms etc? How do you come up with topics etc each week so you collect ideas for later etc? I try to post in linked in for my job and I feel like I can’t even keep up with that! I can’t imagine a newsletter 🤣😭
Yes! I was reading how they predict AI will affect SEO etc on the web since people will ask chat gpt etc instead of googling something and they think there might be a move back to old school blogging as it will pick up content that way to suggest in answers kind of like the short answers at the top of a Google search! Perhaps I’m a nerd but I work in tech and was thinking many bloggers have moved away from blogging and gone straight to platforms and wondering if this will change the way they approach selling products etc!
As a fellow knitter, I want to know about your knitting! And do you know (yet) about all the knitfluencer content that feels just a hop away from momfluencer?
A bit of a ramble: Something I’ve been turning over and sort of trying to figure out is how the American capitalist patriarchal ideals are so tough (for everyone, but also) my neurodivergent brain that when I do get it “right” it feels worth sharing. (Though I don’t and I don’t engage with social media outside of Substack rn.) I wonder if the little hidden step between it being unrealistic and it being effortless lies somewhere in the space of it being so hard that when you’re able to comply it’s worth celebrating? Of course not sharing that step just puts more pressure on those consuming the shares/content and ultimately further puts those things on a pedestal. This isn’t a question, but I would love to hear more about how ADHD/autistic people that are moms are consuming the ideals put forth by momfluencers. KC Davis seems like someone that could maybe speak to some of that experience.
Are you hearing about any momfluencer upcoming trends/etc coming into the new year? Will this be the year we see the influencers spending on AI etc to produce product screenshots or other new technology or trends etc? I have wondered with all the browser changes/ad changes if this will change how they make money if they are doing things like like to know it or will they go back old school blogging etc! I have no idea 🤷♀️
Thank you so much to everyone who came! If you missed it and want in next time, let me know if a midday AMA would work better? My brain turns off at 5PM sharp so I sincerely hope any of what I said tonight was useful/fun/worth your time. I almost just signed off "xoxoxo, gossip girl" TO INDICATE STATE OF COGNITIVE FUNCTION. But truly had so much fun with you all. And now - off to my beloved television :)
I got a question from a reader in my little form about the differences between the OG "mommy bloggers" and today's momfluencers, and I wrote a bit about it here, https://slate.com/human-interest/2023/05/heather-armstrong-dooce-death-mom-blog.html
but here are some other thoughts.
1. I wish I had known about the hilarious, raw, profane mommy bloggers when I was a new mom struggling with postpartum depression and a lack of community.
2. In reading so many of these women, it's so clear that many of them were writers first and foremost, rather than what momfluencers are now, which is (talented!) marketers, advertisers, photographers, stylists, and businesswomen. This isn't to say that today's momfluencers aren't also skilled writers, just that Instagram is where many of them live and Instagram is an image-based platform, whereas the early blogs were very much personal essay driven.
3. Momfluencing is an established job with an established pipeline, whereas many of the women writing about motherhood on the internet did so without any clear idea of where their writing would take them.
Hi! Wish this was at 9pm when bath/bedtime is over. But very happy to be a subscriber - every newsletter has at least one sentence that makes me gasp “yes exactly!” Thank you for sharing your beautiful writing.
Hi Sara! Thanks for sharing your work. I am wondering your thoughts on lack of informed consent for minors included in momfluencers account? And whether you will explore this in future writings/why did not dive into in your book? Thanks for your time!
How do you like Substack so far do you have any opinions on it versus your own website blog or other platforms etc? How do you come up with topics etc each week so you collect ideas for later etc? I try to post in linked in for my job and I feel like I can’t even keep up with that! I can’t imagine a newsletter 🤣😭
Yes! I was reading how they predict AI will affect SEO etc on the web since people will ask chat gpt etc instead of googling something and they think there might be a move back to old school blogging as it will pick up content that way to suggest in answers kind of like the short answers at the top of a Google search! Perhaps I’m a nerd but I work in tech and was thinking many bloggers have moved away from blogging and gone straight to platforms and wondering if this will change the way they approach selling products etc!
As a fellow knitter, I want to know about your knitting! And do you know (yet) about all the knitfluencer content that feels just a hop away from momfluencer?
A bit of a ramble: Something I’ve been turning over and sort of trying to figure out is how the American capitalist patriarchal ideals are so tough (for everyone, but also) my neurodivergent brain that when I do get it “right” it feels worth sharing. (Though I don’t and I don’t engage with social media outside of Substack rn.) I wonder if the little hidden step between it being unrealistic and it being effortless lies somewhere in the space of it being so hard that when you’re able to comply it’s worth celebrating? Of course not sharing that step just puts more pressure on those consuming the shares/content and ultimately further puts those things on a pedestal. This isn’t a question, but I would love to hear more about how ADHD/autistic people that are moms are consuming the ideals put forth by momfluencers. KC Davis seems like someone that could maybe speak to some of that experience.
Are you hearing about any momfluencer upcoming trends/etc coming into the new year? Will this be the year we see the influencers spending on AI etc to produce product screenshots or other new technology or trends etc? I have wondered with all the browser changes/ad changes if this will change how they make money if they are doing things like like to know it or will they go back old school blogging etc! I have no idea 🤷♀️
Is this a Zoom AMA?
Sorry I missed it. I would consider something earlier! I’m in CA and was in the dinner/sports practice vortex...😵💫
Does the newsletter feel like a day job? As in, is there writing that you want to get to but can’t bc of a deadline? Hi, Sara!
What keeps you awake at night about the momfluencer industry? If anything...