By Mikhailla Fitzgerald, Head of Huume Management
There was a moment — somewhere between the early days of blogging and the acceleration of Instagram — when it became clear that what many dismissed as “just content” was becoming something far more consequential.
What began with women sharing the realities of motherhood online has evolved into a sophisticated creator economy worth billions globally. But beyond the headline figures, the deeper shift is this: women have built viable, scalable media businesses on their own terms.
The early “mummy bloggers” were often ridiculed. They were told it wasn’t a real job. That it wouldn’t last. That it wasn’t serious. Yet quietly, they were doing something historically significant — building audiences, influence, trust and commercial leverage without waiting for permission from traditional media gatekeepers.
Building media power and commercial impact
Take Steph Pase, formerly known as Just Another Mummy Blog. What started as real-time documentation of new motherhood and home organisation became a multi-platform brand with measurable commercial impact. Her community didn’t just consume content — they acted on it. Brands saw sell-outs. Demand spikes. Long-term loyalty.
That is not luck. That is media power.
What’s changed over the past decade is the professionalisation of that power. Creators are no longer campaign accessories; they are embedded media partners. They bring distribution, audience insight and conversion capability. In many cases, they are outperforming traditional paid media in engagement and trust metrics.
From hobby to income-generating career
I saw this first-hand with Jessiika, one of the early creators I began working with. She had built a deeply engaged community but hadn’t yet translated that into a structured commercial strategy. When sales frameworks, partnership management, and long-term brand positioning were applied to her existing influence, what many considered a “hobby” became a full-time, income-generating career — eventually positioning her as her family’s primary earner.
That transformation is not an anomaly. It is structural. The creator economy gives women, particularly mothers, something traditional corporate systems often did not: flexibility, autonomy and financial control. It has allowed them to build revenue streams around life, rather than forcing life around revenue.
Importantly, this shift has also created secondary industries: talent management, influencer marketing agencies, content production teams, podcast networks, publishing divisions and amplification specialists. What began with individual women sharing online has expanded into an ecosystem employing thousands.
Owning the infrastructure and audience
As we approach International Women’s Day, it is worth reframing how we talk about influencing. This is not about selfies or virality. It is about ownership, intellectual property, distribution control and power negotiating.
The path to economic agency for women is no longer linear. It does not require climbing a single corporate ladder. In the creator economy, women are building their own ladders — and in many cases, owning the whole building.
The question is no longer whether influencing is a real career. The data has answered that. The more interesting question is how brands, media and institutions adapt to a landscape where audience trust sits with individuals — not platforms.
That shift is not coming. It is already here.
This International Women’s Day, we shouldn’t just celebrate ambition — we should recognise infrastructure. The creator economy is not a trend; it is a redistribution of access. It has given women ownership over income, audience and opportunity at a scale previous generations were never afforded.
Feature Image- Mikhailia Fitzgerald: supplied