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Insta-perfect Motherhood

August 2, 2016 by Liz Hawks Leave a Comment

I read an article recently about the rise of moms made famous by Instagram. These women have tens or hundreds of thousands of followers in the photo-sharing platform and depict an aesthetically pleasing side of their personal motherhood that Instagram users flock to. (And in some cases, they’re making a great living off of those captured and shared moments.)

But I found it interesting that they said they won’t show their dirty laundry there (or their crying baby or their messy living room or their baking fail). Sometimes social media moms and bloggers are chided specifically for not showing the underbelly of motherhood. I think we can all agree parenting is not always pretty. It’s damn hard. But these moms have developed large followings by keeping that dirty stuff hidden out-of-frame. Does that make you love them or hate them?

Have you ever wondered what lies beyond their frame? Do you want to see the reality of other moms’ lives, or is it more interesting and inspiring to see their close-ups of perfect moments?

I clicked through a “Moms of Instagram” article and noticed descriptors like “dreamy,” “fixating,” and “gorgeous” about these sought-after moms’ content. One line said, “Each of her photos is truly more beautiful than the last.” My motherhood doesn’t necessarily look like that. Meanwhile, in a mom focus group I facilitated in my office recently, a millennial mom said she tends to “laugh at the social media perfect world” because “that’s not me and I don’t want to be that.”

So do you think moms flock to Instagram because we want to see the “perfect” and be inspired? Or, do we willingly subject ourselves to unrealistic standards of motherhood because while the photo squares are gorgeous, we can’t see the chaos just outside the frame that might feel a little more relatable… a little more empathetic?

Do you follow any “influential” moms on Instagram? Why do you think they’re so fixating?

 

 

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Filed Under: Parenting

About Liz Hawks

Have you ever stopped to think about why you buy the things you do for yourself and your family? Do you notice ads that speak directly to you as a mom? As a marketing communications consultant to big brands, Liz Hawks works to help the people behind the products resonate better with you, the keeper of the purse strings. A mom of three, and SVP and partner at FleishmanHillard, the no. 1 global communications agency, Liz founded and chairs the firms marketing-to-moms practice group, called FH Moms. The group specializes in bridging the gaps between marketers and moms, who are responsible for 85% of all household purchase decisions. Between client calls and little league games, Liz is a regular speaker at national marketing conferences and is frequently interviewed by industry magazines.

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