The Backlash of the Pregnant Blogger

Oh hi, yes, it’s me, back with a rant as per. Today’s little frustrated rambling was wholly inspired by Katherine Ormerod (she wrote Why Social Media Is Ruining Your Life and has a very nice Instagram you should go follow). You see, Katherine posted on her Instagram account last week talking about how her collaborations with brands changed/disappeared when they found out she was pregnant. And it wasn’t until that exact moment that I realised that mine did too.

I should start by clarifying that I’m not a full-time blogger, but this blog and my social media platforms have been a bit of a ~side hustle~ for me over the last 7 years. I earn a bit of pocket money to fund my travels, I enjoy a couple of press trips a year, get the odd blogger mail and go to a fancy event every now and then.

But since getting pregnant and having my daughter, almost all of these opportunities have dried up. (Shout-out to the couple that stuck around though.)

I put this down to me at the time. I was obviously preoccupied with preparing for the arrival of my daughter, and couldn’t travel in the last couple of months of pregnancy. Then I had a newborn to worry about and figured that brands had just forgotten about me I guess. Out of sight, out of mind.

Well this week I’ve been doing my tax return (v glam I know) and going back over my finances from 2018-19, and in retrospect it’s clear that announcing my pregnancy directly correlated with a sharp decrease in collaborations and sponsored posts. I even looked back over my social activity and blog posts – I was still writing and posting about travel and my life in general, the only difference was the odd bump shot on the grid. I looked at my blog emails and I was pitching to brands as usual, but they weren’t having any of it.

I think at the time I didn’t really clock that my pregnancy had anything to do with it. Regular brands I worked with just coincidentally didn’t have any budget right now. A couple of pitches I made even came back saying that they didn’t like to market to mums-to-be so I wouldn’t be suitable to work with at the moment. But we’d love to work with you after you have the baby.

The funny thing is, I didn’t even think there was anything wrong with that. I was just like, oh yeah cool, let’s work together next year instead.

Since reading Katherine’s post I can see the issue now. Brands just don’t like to work with pregnant bloggers. Unless they’re a maternity brand of course. Apparently when you get pregnant, you stop being a regular human. For 9 months, all you have to offer the world is your pregnancy and stop being a “normal” person with likes and opinions and any kind of influence. Y’know, despite the fact that I visited 7 countries when I was pregnant and continued to write about the same topics.

And the thing is, it’s totally wrong. As a follower of lots of bloggers and instagrammers, I can confirm that I still found them relateable when they were pregnant. I followed Hannah Gale‘s pregnancy religiously even though a baby wasn’t on my radar at the time. She still posted gorgeous outfits and accessories and wrote about Netflix shows she was watching. I didn’t tune out because she was knocked up.

Same with Monica from The Travel Hack. She’s had three children whilst I’ve been reading her blog and following her social media accounts and it’s never put me off. I still love her travel content and, if anything, her motherhood journey just makes her more relateable and real. And I’m more likely to listen to her opinion than those perfect size 6 travel bloggers posting idyllic photos on pristine beach in a sun hat. Surely brands want relatability from the bloggers they work with?

I guess the problem here is bigger than just pregnant bloggers actually. If you don’t fit the “blogger mould” (age, race, sexuality, body shape), brands just aren’t interested. And isn’t that sad? It just reinforces one type of person and makes everyone else feel under-represented.

I’ll be honest, I’ve felt a bit of imposter syndrome since my collabs disappeared. Am I not a good enough blogger anymore? Is my engagement too shit? What’s even the point?

But this realisation has spurred me on a little bit. I write my blog for me, not for the cash and the perks (although they are really great). And actually if a brand is going to drop me because I’m a mum, that’s not really a brand I want to work with. I’m hoping that in 2020 I can work on collaborations with brands that are more inclusive and don’t think that all I offer the world now is #mumlife.

Ok, that’s my rant for the day. I’d love to know your opinion on it. If you don’t have children, do you find pregnant bloggers unrelateable? Of if you’ve had a baby, did you find you were treated differently when you were pregnant?

Head on over to my Instagram and Twitter accounts for regular updates on my travels, millennial motherhood and life in general.