Momfluencer

The term first came into use in the early 2000s, along with the rise of social media and mobile phone technology which facilitated the ease of widespread sharing of personal baby photos from new mothers with a digital audience.[4]

The term is a portmanteau of the words Mom and Influencer. A 'momfluencer' may refer to a new mother that may have "...social media followings in the tens of thousands or even millions..." where the new mother may share, "...tips and inspiration to their fellow moms..." about various duties of a new mother that might consist of installing a car seat or other such activities.[5] Some mothers associated with minority racial or ethnic groups are alleged to be paid less than their peers in racial and ethnic majority groups, in part due to, "...limited financial transparency."[6]

Some have criticized "mom influencer" culture[7] for being overly focused on materialistic pursuits, or in building a form of rat race between competing parents to one-up others in terms of whom might be artificially deemed the best mother according to some external sources such as fans, followers, or the public generally.[8] Author Sara Petersen in Time said:

Viewing beautifully shot and lit photos of a momfluencer's bespoke laundry room in her Nantucket mansion through the informed lens of entertainment can be fun and soothing. But we can't all afford Nantucket mansions, and the more we believe (or fool ourselves into believing) that aspirational wicker hampers can make our experiences of motherhood any less frustrating, exhausting, or confounding, the less mental space we have to focus on the broken systems and institutions making motherhood so hard for so many of us.[8]

Petersen stated in an interview with Vox regarding a book on the subject from 2023 called Momfluenced[9] that, "The momfluencer, obviously, is not a real person. She's a construct, created by real mothers in the mid-aughts, in concert with tech companies and consumer brands, as a way of making a living on social media."[10] Petersen also criticized momfluencers, or "momfluencer culture", for being predominantly white, and upper middle class. She also criticizes the image put forth by some so called momfluencer women as airing a generally misleading lifestyle on social media in terms of affordability. An example includes renting an expensive car and taking pictures of the vehicle while on a holiday, and then pretending that the vehicle is not rented, but is owned.[10] Petersen's book also was reviewed by Rolling Stone in 2023 wherein Petersen said that momfluencer culture included themes of, "race, class, capitalism, consumerism, domesticity, ideals for femininity. There was a lot there."[11]

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