I have a  blog.
and I have a uterus that has carried 3 kids.

I am a blogger, and, yes, I am a “mom” but that doesn’t make me a “mommy blogger”

Just as much as a guy, with kids and a blog isn’t a “daddy blogger”

I get that it is easy to put us into niche pots, sort us as to our assumed reach and market, but by stamping us with the term “Mommy” we are making a million assumptions.

I spent 10 years as a stay at home mom. Fully committed to my growing kids and supporting my partner as he put the time into his career. During those 10 years I lost a huge piece of who I was and it has taken courage to chase back after it these last two years.

I lost confidence in myself during that time. I was out of touch with the rest of society and my little bubble world bounced from play group to preschool to balancing nap times.

And it was okay. It needed to happen, and I traded my personal growth and development for that of my kids.

And then, things changed.  The kids grew out of infancy, and I had time to spend thinking about what I loved, and how I wanted to spend my days.

I became a writer, both freelance and via my own blog.  I became a publisher, and a strategist. I started teaching and training and my creativity flourished. I built a stable business, worked with brands to develop marketing strategy, planned events and managed growth scaling for multiple other business owners.

I am a human, a woman, with children and chickens and creative ideas. I blog, I write, I think.

So when you call me a “Mommy Blogger” you are only seeing one small portion of who I am, and that does me a disservice. I stuck myself in the “Just a Mom” box for 10 years and fought my way out of it, so please don’t push me back in that corner.

So what CAN you call me?
You can call me a writer. Or a blogger.  You can call me a freelancer.   Or even a journalist.
Just don’t use my gender as a way to differentiate me from another.

Or you can just call me Julie.

The digital marketing industry is changing. Blogging is become a stable and viable business choice for many, and this means that behind the pretty pictures we are posting there is strategy and planning.  We are walking into relationships with objectives for growth, and we have ideas to bring to the table.

We are strong women, with c-section scars, birth stories or adoption tales.
And we are more than those experiences.

Bloggers are now creating personal brands for themselves that reach far beyond a singular asset.  We are not items on a shelf that a brand picks up to create a campaign, we are the chef’s in our own right, able to working with key ingredients a brand delivers to make something unique, authentic and appealing to our readers.

So please, look beyond the stories of my children and see the stories of my life that I am sharing. See me as a whole, not a part. See the human in my blogging, the woman, the professional, the traveller, the individual.

Look beyond the “mommy” and see me as I am .