The Motherload
The Truth About Motherhood in Adland
I became a mother on December 28th, 2022, and it nearly broke me.
The birth was brutal, but the aftermath was worse—a haze of pain, trauma, and a fragile new life entirely dependent on me while I was barely holding it together. I wasn’t just thrown off course—I was bulldozed. Everything I thought I knew about myself shattered in an instant.
Day by day, I tried to rebuild, but there was no ‘bouncing back.’ I was starting from scratch—with new scars, new strengths, and new depths of vulnerability. And just as I began to piece myself together, I had to go back to work. As the breadwinner, I didn’t have a choice. Forget ‘finding myself’; I needed to find cash flow. The pressure was crushing.
But I wasn’t ready. Exhausted, scattered, and still reeling, I lost my biggest client—the one piece of stability I was clinging to. Eleven weeks postpartum, I was spiralling—financially and emotionally—forced to choose between survival and simply being with my baby. Just as I started to claw my way out, I found out I was pregnant again. My daughter was nine months old, and instead of joy, I felt dread.
I turned to other mothers, desperate for a solution. But I quickly learned there’s no hack. Every woman I spoke to—whether with newborns or grown children—shared the same struggles: isolation, self-doubt, panic attacks, and the relentless pressure to ‘bounce back’ as if our identities hadn’t been torn apart and stitched into something entirely new. Now add in the relentless pace of Adland, and you have a recipe for disaster.
If you’re a mother in advertising, I see you—the exhaustion of juggling a career while the industry claps itself on the back for hollow nods to “work-life balance.” Mothers in Adland aren’t just bending; they’re breaking. We’re surviving on frayed mental health and threadbare patience, propping up a system that demands the impossible and gives nothing back. The speed, endless deadlines, and ‘always-on’ expectations aren’t just incompatible with motherhood—they’re openly hostile to it.
That’s why I created The Motherload report. Part essay, part survey of 200+ women, it’s a raw and unflinching look at the realities of motherhood in advertising. This isn’t a plea for sympathy; it’s a demand for change. Because when agencies drive out their most experienced, creative talent, everyone loses.
The future of advertising doesn’t lie in forcing mothers to adapt—it lies in redesigning the system to support, accommodate, and celebrate them. After all, if the industry can’t figure out how to value mothers, it can’t claim to value true creativity or progress.
This is my way of sounding the alarm—because I’ve lived it, and I see too many others suffocating under it. We’re tired of just surviving. It’s time for the industry to evolve—or risk losing its very best.
My son is 16. I have and still do battle with prejudice in the workplace around motherhood from the point I returned back to work I was swiftly made redundant for my role at leading agency in London. At the time I was a senior strategist in quite a high-pressured role it became apparent upon return that I was being sidelined, and at that point I decided to work for myself, since then I've had a few employed roles but these have never worked out as the pressure and prejudice have been too much to deal with pushing me out of the workplace back to being self-employed. I have managed over the last 16 years what I feel has been a bit of a hotchpotch career of freelancing and working for clients directly just to try and remain senior in my contribution and in my salary without having to work full-time... Yes I wanted to be senior on a part time basis.. something this sector does not like....it's really tricky in our sector as I'll see limited support for parents be that male or female, it makes me feel really sad that we have made progress ....but ...absolutely not enough I feel there is so many talented women who are resilient for many years and then just worn down by the system, and self-doubt. Proudly I carry on and I'm still working in a freelance capacity, have I reached the pinnacle of my career as had hope hoped I would in my younger years.. no!! Do I provide a good salary and work life balance? ... fairly much I think I do, but I had to step out of big agencies and I have had to be very resourceful and extremely resilient. Do I feel angry about the system and agency world absolutely! As I hit perimenopause... Ekkk 47!!! And my son is now more independent the challenge are changing!
I absolute love this, I know many feel the same way, thanks for being so honest! Accidentally just saw Vice report today along similar lines, great the topic is rising up, since nothing is really changing.. I live in Sweden and own my business, and while benefits are in general great here, being a business owner is kind of the only loop hole that does not help for mothers at all, there is no realistic solution to being independant and a mother...