If you are doing an article on SOAM, feel free to use any of the information here. To download the photos you will first need to click the photo to be taken to a page where you can right-click.
Bio
bonnianne ratliff is an autistic activist committed to intersectional feminism. She is a single mom to two teenagers in Southern California. She graduated from San Diego State University in 2018 with a degree in English and a minor in Women’s Studies. She started The Shape of a Mother in July of 2006 because she saw that there was a distinct lack of representation of realistic postpartum bodies in the media at the time. She realized that if people were able to see photos of real, unretouched pregnant and postpartum bodies, it could heal some of the unnecessary shame held by the unrealistic expectations society demands. bonnianne wants people to know that, above all, bodies are functional and that beauty is a construct; all bodies are good bodies. In addition to The Shape of a Mother’s original user-run project, bonnianne also uses the site as a platform to educate about feminism and related topics through her series on Badass Bitches From History and her educational infoposts and flyers. In her free time, bonnianne likes to play Animal Crossing way too much or give her teens a cultural education by making them watch old John Hughes movies.
Within a month of SOAM’s creation, the London Guardian had done an article on the website. It has since been featured in The Orange County Register, Fitness and Mothering magazines, Today.com, The Daily Mail, The Huffington Post, and at least two European television shows.
As of June 2017, the current stats for SOAM were as follows:
2,500+ submissions from moms in the last ten years
37,000+ unique visitors to the site each month
nearly 70,000 visits each month
Top five countries:
United States
Sweden
Russian Federation
France
Great Britain
Photos
