Candice Brathwaite | What it's Like To Be A Black British Mother

“You can only see something's missing if you are the thing that is missing”, Candice Brathwaite tells us in today’s episode. The influencer, blogger, and author of I Am Not Your Baby Mother knows a thing or two about being the missing piece. As the founder of Make Motherhood Diverse, and with a background in Marketing, she found she was consistently seeing the same faces in the online motherhood community – and none of them were black. So, she took it upon herself to spark real change. Her new book documents her experiences as a black mother in the UK, backed up with research and data that paints a picture of some of the larger issues involved. And it’s a first: in the UK, she tells us, “a black parent has never written a book from their perspective of raising children”. Despite launching in the middle of a pandemic, after five pitches to publishers, and a difficult writing process, I Am Not Your Baby Mother is an important, timely piece of work. Now the day we had this conversation, ended up being the day that George Floyd was tragically murdered. Neither of us knew, the world as we knew it was about to change forever. We need change. And it’s shocking that it takes the brutal murder of a black man in broad daylight for change to be actioned. Our conversation with Candice covered everything from: The lack of diversity in the mum-blogging world How she became a ‘mumfluencer’ and why it was important Reluctance in the black community to share online and where that stems from Why she likens her book to a child she’s birthing and giving straight up for adoption Why Instagram can be like the blind leading the blind The pitfalls of the publishing industry and why debut writers are expected to have huge social media followings How maternal care fails black women How Brexit affected her five year old What inspired her to found her platform Make Motherhood Diverse Why representation needs to go beyond race Why she believes the key to moving forward is having diversity employed in PR teams Why she is the ruler of her social kingdom and she does want to live in an echo chamber when it comes to her following Why she believes the ‘block’ and ‘delete’ functions are so powerful Find out more about Candice and her book at www.candicebrathwaite.com Follow Candice on InstagramSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.