Mummy influencers and professional sharenting

Sharenting (sharing parenting on social media) has become a widespread activity, and some of those parents become family influencers. Female influencers have been on the rise, partly as an alternative to the precariousness of the job market. This article presents a qualitative study on 11 Portuguese mummy and family influencers, analysing social media content observed throughout 2.5 years, as well as media discourses on them. It focuses on how these female content creators portray parenting and family, work-life balance as an influencer and their boundaries for privacy and intimacy. It demonstrates how prominent mummy influencers reproduce a neoliberal ethos which favours an individual management of reconciling motherhood and a career in the context of post-austerity and precarity, through an emotional discourse that promotes relatability with the audience, converted into an essentially consumerist agenda.

Automated summary

This study analyzed the social media content and media discourse of 11 Portuguese mommy and family influencers, focusing on how they portray parenting, family life, work-life balance, and boundaries for privacy and intimacy. The research demonstrates how prominent mommy influencers promote a neoliberal ethos through emotional discourse that connects with the audience, transforming it into a consumerist agenda.