Women of color finally gaining ground as mom influencers
PHOENIX — Kisha Gulley was once kicked out of a Facebook group for mothers with autistic children after a contentious debate she felt was racial. Over and over, she clashed with the white-dominated groups she’d sought out for support as a new mom.
So Gulley, who is Afro Latina, started her own parenting blog and social media accounts. It’s now a source of income for her.
The multibillion-dollar world of sleep training guides, toddler activity ideas, breastfeeding tips and all things parenting has traditionally been overwhelmingly white. Parenting book jackets feature mostly white faces. The so-called mom influencers that brands choose to advertise their products have, until recently, also been mostly white.
This has left a hole for women of color, especially new moms, who struggle to find culturally relevant parenting advice and products.
Increasingly, they’re taking matters into their own hands.
“If I can’t find it, that’s when we have to start creating that for ourselves. I knew I couldn’t be the only person that had these questions,” said Gulley, who lives in Phoenix.
When she learned her firstborn son was autistic, Gulley dove into research, digging for any resources that might help her family. And even though there was a lot of information out there, there were small but significant questions that many experts couldn’t answer.
How, for example, could she comb through her son’s thickly-textured hair without triggering his sensory issues? What’s a good sunscreen to use on dark skin that doesn’t leave white residue?
It was a frustrating time for her that climaxed in the Facebook group when she felt that several white women were dismissive and rude to a Black mom who had sought advice about how to talk to her family about her child’s autism diagnosis. The women didn’t grasp that in some communities of color, older generations can be apprehensive about autism and tend to think issues come down to behavior and discipline. Gulley defended the mom, and was kicked out of the group.
She grew her own social media presence soon after, and now makes a living from it, earning more now than she did in her 15 years as a flight attendant, she said.
Over the years, mommy bloggers have evolved into Instagram influencers. Carefully curated images accompany posts with tips on how to get a baby to sleep or teach them to feed themselves. Often, influencers advertise products they say moms might find helpful.
But a problem persists. Marketing budgets are much more limited for multicultural targets than for general advertising, said Stacey Ferguson, a lawyer by training who is now a business owner and founder of Blogalicious, an organization and annual conference that once helped women of color monetize and grow their blogs. Traditionally, white women have been paid to market to general audiences. That means a white mom could earn much more money marketing to an audience of all ethnicities and races than a woman who markets specifically to, say, Latina moms.
“It’s still that archaic way of looking at marketing,” Ferguson said. “The brands and the agencies that understand (the need to diversify) are making progress. The issue is that there’s still so many that are behind.”
Jacqueline Hernandez Lewis of Long Island, New York, began blogging nine years ago as a law student and military wife seeking a community.
After she became a mom, Hernandez Lewis, 33, wanted to find a space where Latinas and other moms of color felt empowered. When she went back to work after her first child, she struggled to adapt and wanted to find a way to spend more time at home while still earning income. She now has three little ones.
Hernandez Lewis earned $25 from her first sponsored post. Now, she earns anywhere between $700 to $3,000 per post, while also working full time.
“We deserve to be represented on the business side. There’s brands that haven’t been as inclusive as I’d hoped, but a lot of brands are shifting and becoming more inclusive,” Hernandez Lewis said.