By Melissa Corkhill
19th December 2016
When Celia Sanchez became a mum 11 years ago she got the message loud and clear: you don’t fit the mother mold. You’re different. “When I would take my children to day care, I felt kind of … like I didn’t look like the other moms,” Sanchez told Upworthy. “They were much older than me. I just felt kind of separated from them. I would get a lot of ‘Oh you’re so young to be a mom,’ ‘You don’t really look like a mom,’ and I always thought that was a silly thing to say: ‘Oh you don’t look like a mom.’”
Sanchez was 23 years old at the time of these uncomfortable encounters with other parents. Now, years later, after feeling the obvious wraths of judgement and reductive stereotyping she is showing the world that mothers can look all types of ways. Mums can have tattoos, piercings, vibrant hair colours, and clothes that fit their personal style. Her photo series is called, “Devoted,” and it aims to challenge your first impressions of what an archetypal mother looks like. Find her album of motherhood here.
