The most influential mothers in Britain (so can you guess what they do?)
They get spotted in supermarkets by fans. They share every warts-and-all detail of their lives. And they can sell out a product in just a few minutes...
MOTHERS Holly and Sophie can no longer even push a trolley up and down the aisles of Sainsbury’s without being recognised by fans.
if their surnames Gee and Taylor aren’t yet on the tip of your tongue, you might recognise their children — holly has cherubic Delilah, two, and Sophie has
Zack, also two. in a case of remarkable synchronicity, both women are three months pregnant with their second children. if that still doesn’t ring any bells — and their brand name Life Of Mummies isn’t familiar — the chances are you’ve had a YouTube clip of theirs forwarded to you by an amused friend, or been regaled with tales of their nappy mishaps or bedtime woes by a daughter or granddaughter with children.
For these women are two of the most influential mothers in Britain today.
They’re members of a growing band of online role models who have become the first port of call for advice and companionship in those bewildering early days of parenthood by writing about their own experiences with sisterly honesty — while also making motherhood a profitable business in the process.
Friends holly and Sophie, who joined forces to launch their blog Life Of Mummies two years ago, are already so successful they are considering leaving
their day jobs (Holly works in beauty while Sophie is a music manager) to become full-time mum bloggers. It sounds counterintuitive that the role of stayathome mother could be potentially more lucrative than a regular career. But the rewards can be rich.
The world’s top- earning mum blog is an American site, WhatsUpMoms, which a study by website OnBuy estimated can make £ 89,333 in a busy month, from advertising and brand partnerships.
Our version of this booming industry is far more down-toearth in content, but can be just as profitable, with the most successful UK mum bloggers now earning six-figure sums for passing on parenting titbits that women would once have gleaned from a chat at the school gate.
(Holly and Sophie’s first ever post was the hilarious account of an outing with a newborn baby and no spare nappy, which any mother will appreciate was not at all funny at the time.)
One of the most successful British mummy bloggers, Louise Pentland’s company A Sprinkle of Glitter was worth £576,000 last year, according to Companies House. Anna Saccone Joly who posts as The Saccone Jolys, is reportedly worth £1.4 million.
It sounds like an enviable lifestyle for the lucky few who make it work — when blogger Candice Brathwaite’s second child RJ was born 18 months ago, she says she ‘didn’t have to pay for a thing for him, because brands sent everything we needed, as gifts. That will never cease to take my breath away’.
And juggling childcare and work is certainly easier.
‘What women who blog about being parents have done is use the internet to get the balance we want,’ says Molly Gunn, a former journalist who built up her blog Selfish Mother in the wake of the ‘discombobulating’ experience of becoming a mother.
The big brands pay hand over fist for mummy bloggers’ endorsements— regularly over £1,000 for a single mention, bloggers have admitted. Little wonder then, that, all in all, the online ‘influencing’ industry is forecast to be worth at least £8 billion globally next year and that mum bloggers are crucial players within it.
Brands realise their power — beauty giant Estée Lauder now spends 75 per cent of its marketing budget on influencers as they are more effective than traditional advertising.
These women are aware, of course, that they are a marketable commodity — one post from them can make a product sell out. But their reliability and authenticity — key selling points of their blogs — also make them a welcome source of advice or just solidarity.
They sound just like the average woman — so why wouldn’t you take their advice when it comes to buying clothes or booking holidays?
As Anna Whitehouse, who has nearly 300,000 Instagram followers and is better known by her blog name Mother Pukka, explains: ‘Brands are now aware that customers want to see reality, so they’re not buying into fantasy but moving towards real people in their campaigns.’
Taboo subjects, previously only shared with one’s closest friends — if at all — like the reality of sex after giving birth, the misery of the perimenopause, or the at times frustrating monotony of childcare are now broadcast to the world, gaining bloggers more valuable followers.
It’s caused a significant societal shift: normal women have followed suit and will now publicly air even the most intimate of anxieties. Such openness may have many positive effects, but it’s also true some find this readiness to emote disconcerting — especially when it comes to sharing every detail of one’s private life.
There’s an element of show and tell. Toddler’s nappy exploded? Teenager being moody? Husband forgot to put the bins out again? No matter — it’s all material for your online audience. Anna has recently had a change of heart about sharing — and not just out of a need for privacy, but also because of the impact social media was having on her daytoday life. Taking endless photos of her family meant she was living through her phone screen.
Today, she forces herself to take phone breaks and tries to protect her children’s identities, hiding their faces with artfully arranged pictures instead.
So who’s who among the most powerful mum bloggers — and how successful are they at their unique blend of motherhood and marketing?
FIGHTING FOR FAIR WORK FOR MUMS
Anna whitehouse, Mother Pukka FAME: 226,000 Instagram followers
FORTUNE: Her company is worth £264,000, records show BLONDE East Londoner Anna uses her blog Mother Pukka to campaign for flexible working. And it’s hugely attractive to brands seeking to market themselves to Anna’s 30 to 40- something following: from Huggies to Scottish Widows.
Mother Pukka was born in 2015 out of ‘frustration’, Anna says. She was working as a copywriter for L’Oreal while bringing up her twoyear-old daughter, and her request for flexible working was denied.
‘I quit my job and posted on Instagram that the working world is not set up for mothers or fathers, for people living with disability or caring responsibilities — or people just wanting to live.’
Within minutes she had 68 comments. Instagram had gone from being a place where she ‘posted pictures of avocado toast’ to a new job.
She is lobbying to make flexible working the default — Conservative MP Helen Whately recently introduced a flexible working bill in Parliament. ‘This is not about a Mummy wanting to see more of her Weetabix- spattered child,’ says Anna. ‘It’s about wanting to work in a more humane way.’
She’s aware that mum blogging is ‘not representative of modern parenting in Britain. To tell the full story, other voices need to be raised higher. I love the work of Motherhood Reconstructed and Make Motherhood diverse.’
When she started out, she didn’t think twice about sharing pictures of every family moment, but when they started school, she stopped posting pictures of their faces.
Today, she restricts herself to her children appearing in only 20 per cent of her posted images — and spends one day a month with
a photographer taking enough pictures of her children to sustain her online feed, allowing them to spend the rest of the month without being photographed.
Anna, who also presents on Heart FM, outearns her husband, Matt Farquharson, a copywriter. Her daughter recently commented that ‘mummy is a boss and daddy keeps [us] safe’.
‘WHERE ARE ALL THE BLACK MOTHERS?’
Candice Brathwaite, Make Motherhood Diverse FAME: 46,500 Instagram followers FORTUNE: Can earn £1,000 for a day’s work. MIlton-Keynes based Candice didn’t stumble into posting about her family — she started her blog ‘with a business mindset’ in 2015, when her daughter esme was a year old.
Working in marketing for publisher Penguin Random House, she had been astonished at how much bloggers earn: ‘I spent my whole time asking bloggers to feature our books and it was minimum £800 for a post. I realised I was in the wrong job. everything I was doing for Jamie oliver, I could do for myself!’
she was also concerned about the lack of diversity. ‘ there was one question in my mind: Where are all the black mums online? I struggled to see any black British mums with a voice. yet black mothers are particularly prone to post-natal depression [at 44 per cent versus 31 per cent for white mothers] because they feel no one understands them.’ Witty and open, she writes about bringing up her two children, esme, now six and RJ, 18 months, and has a podcast and a book deal. she also insists she turns down offers to promote goods if she doesn’t use the product in real life.
But she admits it took her three years and a lot of heartache to make any money. she had given up her salary of around £30,000 and was reliant on her husband, a sales director. ‘He told me it was a massive waste of time,’ she says. ‘It put a strain on our relationship. But he stuck with me.’
they had struggled with money before, she says: ‘At one point, we were down to our last £20 and had to make a choice between topping up the gas meter and buying esme nappies. Blogging changed that. Although when I get a deal, I still do a happy dance around the kitchen because it means we can afford food! I am aware the cheques can stop at any moment.’
Her first ‘paid gig’ was with Dove, who gave her £1,000 to make a video. Her daughter gets a cut if she’s in photos, and it goes into her savings account. still, she doesn’t quite understand Candice’s job. ‘she says “Mummy, you are always at home taking pictures. Daddy works, you don’t.”’
like many mum bloggers Candice says being your own boss doesn’t mean an easy life.
‘I took on too much with my second pregnancy,’ she says. ‘I was back on email three days after my C-section. I felt I couldn’t slip out of the public eye. now I wish I could go back and tell that woman to chill out. I was pumping milk while on my laptop.’
she’s now trying to relax — but she’s also aware the mummy blogger boom may not last.
‘Any mum influencer who thinks “this is it” is in for a horrendous wake up call in five years. If you don’t diversify into other projects, like writing books or giving talks, you will come unstuck.’
BRUMMY MUMMY — AND PROUD
Emma Conway, BrummyMummyof2 FAME: 94,000 Instagram followers
FORTUNE: Has worked with Disney and McDonald’s noRMAlIty is Birminghambased mum of two emma’s mantra: ‘ Unlike the average Instamum, I’m a bit older at 40, I’m not from london, I’m plus- size and live in a fairly average threebedroom terrace. A lot of my posts use the self-deprecating humour us Brummies love.’
Blonde, outgoing and happy to post pictures of herself in a swimming costume, Pimm’s in hand, she has worked with brands including sainsbury’s.
A former teacher, she admits she’s gone from a ‘worthy’ job to one often labelled ‘shallow’ — and so tries to talk about charities such as Alzheimer’s Research UK and advocate for body confidence. she’s just employed a part-time assistant and has even inspired her mother to start her own account, @ brummynannysan.
IT TAKES TWO TO MAKE AN EMPIRE
Holly Gee and Sophie Taylor, Life Of Mummies FAME: 17,000 Instagram followers
FORTUNE: one project with a brand made them £5,000 Holly Gee and sophie taylor realised their youtube channel had become more than a fun project when baby food company Annabel Karmel got in touch to ask if they wanted to make a video in 2017.
now they are recognised in the supermarket — and want to give up their day jobs in music management and PR to work fulltime on life of Mummies. they met through their husbands, who sophie says have been ‘best friends since school’, and found out they were pregnant at the same time.
now that their children Zack and Delilah are two, Holly says they are ‘being careful about what they do’. ‘I can tell if Delilah is not in the mood to be filmed, she goes “no, no, no”, and I instantly put my phone away.
‘these kids will grow up and see themselves online. We won’t chase them around for an Instagram picture. We’ll never post them having a tantrum or naked. We don’t want to force it.’
TAKING HER FAMILY AROUND THE WORLD
Katie Ellison FAME: 74,000 Instagram followers
FORTUNE: Works with Visit Florida and Mark Warner and goes on family trips with them. sMIley, athletic mum- of-three Katie has been a blogger since 2011 when, she says, there were ‘only a handful of mum blogs’.
‘I was in the throes of first-time motherhood and was obsessed with talking about my daughter. I didn’t start it with a particular plan, no one was making any money from blogging back then.’
How that’s changed. Cambridgeshire-based Katie now attracts brands from Velux to soak, thomson Holidays to ski Famille, with her mix of family, travel and interiors posts.