Motherhood is often defined narrowly by biology, but our lived — and ancestral — experience tells a much more expansive story.
We’re inviting you to reflect on how you have experienced motherhood, mothering, or being mothered—whether or not you identify as a biological mother. This could include caring for others, being shaped by responsibility early in life, nurturing a community, creating safety where it didn’t exist or learning to re-parent yourself. It could include grief, longing, joy, rupture, devotion, ambivalence or transformation.
In your piece, consider reflecting on some of the questions below. You don’t need to answer them all — use what resonates:
Where did you first encounter mothering in your life? Who or what shaped that understanding?
In what ways have you acted as a mother, nurturer, protector, or guide — by choice or by circumstance?
How has motherhood, or the absence of it, changed your sense of self, purpose, or responsibility?
What have you learned about care, sacrifice, boundaries or love through this experience?
How do you define motherhood now, in your own words?
Your submission can be personal, reflective, narrative or essay-style. There is no “right” story here — only honest ones. We welcome tenderness, complexity and truth.
This series exists to honor the many ways we carry, give, receive and become mothers — to ourselves, to others and to the world.