Tara experienced PNDA with her first two children while trying to keep alive the two things she loved most: her business and her babies. When she became pregnant with her third child, she made the decision to go all in on the biggest job of all — motherhood. She chose to exit her business and gift herself the maternity leave she had never been able to take while running her own company.
This decision poured fuel on a spark she had been journaling about for years: a personal passion project she calls Motherism.
Motherism began on Instagram with hot pink, feverish lettering that jabs at the status quo and hits a nerve with the collective consciousness; things are not right as they are.
It dares mothers to take up space, speak their truth, and amplify the voices already making a difference.
Motherism
is the unfinished business
of feminism - for mothers.
Motherism officially launched on Mother’s Day 2024, but it really began in the tear-stained journal entries that followed Tara becoming a mother in 2016. After she had finished hating herself and her business, she began to turn on the value system that raised her, the same system that had given her everything she thought she needed to survive, and the same one capitalism conveniently profited from: feminism.
Through her pain and matrescence, she came to believe that mothers need their own kind of feminism. She began to turn her rage into a productive movement to make mothers seen, heard and valued, with the dream to create disruptive innovations that truly serve mothers.
Motherism began with hot pink, feverish lettering that jabs at the status quo and strikes a nerve in the collective consciousness waking up to the fact that things aren’t right as they are.
Motherism dares mothers to take up space, speak their truth, and back the voices already making a difference.
💗
Amplifying mothers in feminist discourse, policy making and culture shaking
💗 Amplifying mothers in feminist discourse, policy making and culture shaking
If we move enough people,
we’ll start a movement.
Right now, Motherism is one mother and an unofficial advisory ‘Mother Board’ moving the message through art and creative collaborations. But with the right partners, it can become a force that reshapes culture, policy, and how we value and support mothers.
Creative Collabs
Tara is seeking partnerships with mother-centred organisations to creatively amplify the voices and needs of modern mothers.
Her first collaboration was with Parents Work Collective (PWC) and resulted in a co-creating a successful Kickstarter campaign, raising over $36,000 in just 30 days to crowdfund the self-publishing of the book All Mothers Work by Virginia Tapscott. The book is now available to purchase online and funds the NFP, PWC.
Mother Mentoring
Tara is currently piloting 1:1 ‘Mother Mentoring’ sessions, drawing on her experience as a Mother, business owner, Creative Director, and start-up coach. These sessions offer deep connection, kinship, and practical coaching for mothers navigating their ‘now what?’ They provide clarity, confidence, and actionable steps to help women turn pain into power and become changemakers for themselves, their children, and the world.
Join the movement to be sent details of the pilot mentoring initiative.
Artivism
“The role of the artist is to make
the revolution irresistible"
Toni Cade Bambara
Tara pours her experience as an artist and creative entrepreneur into the creative activism, or ‘artivism’, that brings Motherism to life. Initially, the work has taken the form of bold, hand-lettered statements in feverish hot pink Posca pens, but she holds a much bigger vision for interdisciplinary applications.
For now, her work lives on Instagram, but the intention is to expand across new mediums and public spaces to seduce society into the change mothers want.
Collaboration with ImpactMOTHERISM X PARENTS WORK COLLECTIVE
Motherism’s first collaboration was with Parents Work Collective. Tara Shelton on behalf of Motherism, co-led a successful Kickstarter campaign that raised over $36k in 30 days to self-publish the book ‘All Mothers Work’ by journalist Virginia Tapscott.
Artivism. Orginal artwork by Tara Shelton for Motherism
We respectfully acknowledge that the term ‘Motherism’ has other meanings. Notably, Catherine Acholonu, a Nigerian writer, formally defined it in 1995 as an Afrocentric alternative to feminism rooted in motherhood, nature, and African tradition. In her words, “Motherism is the alternative to feminism for African women.”