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Lateefah Torrence's avatar

I don't remember the last time I was so happy to be Black and ignored by capitalism. Only after reading this have I realized that I've been free to make motherhood mine because American society doesn't expect me to mother at all.

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Iheartthe90s's avatar

I admit that I used to follow Naomi Davis of Love Taza. I have 3 kids around the same ages as her oldest kids. I’d read her posts and be torn between disbelief that traveling with 3 little kids and navigating NYC with them was supposedly so easy and, otoh, desire to believe the fantasy because the photos were so pretty, lol.

There were parts that I found really distasteful - sometimes they’d cross a line for me by monetizing supposedly special moments with their kids. For example, I remember one time Naomi took her oldest daughter out for a special “mother daughter” day yet it turned out to be an ad for jeans. And it was heavily photographed too so I guess Josh was along to document it (he acted as her photographer at the time)? Did the daughter understand why he’d be along on her special outing with mom? Idk, it was kinda weird and starting to verge too much on the Truman Show for me.

Related to this, I did read Petersen’s book and I was disappointed that she didn’t have much to say on the inherent “ickiness” of these influencers using their kids, who aren’t old enough to give consent no matter what they may say to the contrary, to make money. There’s a difference between a fashion influencer who occasionally mentions their kids to what “Momfluencers” are doing which is commodifying their family lives and their children’s childhoods. And again, if you follow along for any length of time like I did with the Davis family, it does start to become very Truman Show-esque. When the kids grow up and look back on their childhood memories, are they going to wonder what was real and authentic and what was staged to sell jeans and applesauce?

There’s also the fact that when they grow up, these kids will have a digital footprint the size of Montana that they’ll never be able to scrub away and that they didn’t ask for. As a parent, I think it’s important to protect my kids’ privacy and anonymity until they are old enough to make decisions for themselves.

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