These days, it seems like more moms than ever are trying to figure out how to make entrepreneurship and motherhood work while they also try to figure out how to make sure their children are being educated … along with running a household, feeding those kids, and somehow still having the energy to be a whole adult person and to take care of their own needs. If you're feeling tired just from reading that sentence, you're not alone! It's tough out there for moms these days.
However, there are totally ways to make it work. Designer Vania Barbieri-Morris has been running her own businesses for over a decade now. She and her former business partner swept the online wedding community (and beyond) when they started their photography company Simply Bloom Photography. After they closed the business in 2018, Vania began seeking creative and professional outlets elsewhere.
Vania also became a mom during her time as a wedding photographer and knew she needed to find a way to continue to balance both her personal and professional aspirations. Somehow, she has managed to stitch it all together, and right now she is running two incredibly creative businesses and homeschooling her sons, who are 7 and 4.
The idea of working from home while parenting is intimidating enough, but the idea of working for yourself while doing so is downright scary for a lot of parents. Vania shared that, apart from a few internships while in college, she's always worked for herself, so she's never questioned making motherhood and entrepreneurship work at the same time.
Her time as a wedding photographer was a wonderful one, and Vania and her business partner traveled all over the world as they photographed couples and brought their stunning vision to life. But she says that in 2018, "My personal life had hit a wall, I had undergone major turmoil and debilitating stress."
Closing the business was hard, but it was the right call.
Vania spent some time going inward, nurturing her spirit, and contemplating what she needed to be the wife, parent, and creative that she wanted to be. Eventually, her jewelry business ShopMOSS (Mother of Sons) was born.
"ShopMOSS was born after a period in my life where I was intentionally seeking happiness and authentic joy. It was a season of rediscovery for me. I began painting again, reading books, journaling, meditating, getting back to the raw love for art and something beautiful happened: I came across a medium I had never encountered before: clay."
As an artist, Vania has an innate need to work physically with art. Just as she forged a connection with her camera, Vania began to design earrings made of clay. She says that the inspiration just hit her out of nowhere:
"I tend to get a lot of creative ideas, and with some of them, I just feel this pull to bring to life. This was true for a collection of earrings I had visualized made up of raw brass, frilled white flowers, and quartz crystals. Once I have these sparks and visions, I tend to get obsessed with the notion of making them come true. I excessively researched sources and materials to bring my sketches to life, then quickly after posting the first few prototypes on my social media, an artisanal jewelry brand was born."
Vania was born in Italy and is the proud child of Italian parents who immigrated to the United States. She credits her Italian family with her flower-making prowess:
"The rudimentary skill of making flowers did come from my childhood in Italy. My great aunt showed me how to make flowers and little creatures from the soft insides of bread. We would take the soft crumb and knead it in our hands with water and basically bring it back to being dough.
"We then would roll out the small dough pieces and sculpt different blooms and animals. It is a memory I cherish and one of those magical childhood things that lingered in my subconscious. Who would have known it would turn into a fruitful business 25 years later!"
Jewelry doesn't always intuitively feel practical for a lot of moms, but Vania intentionally designs pieces that are for moms and people who cherish unique design and need something that can be worn while chasing kids — especially since that's exactly how you could describe her.
"I create artful pieces for the gal who seeks the unique. As a mom of two young boys, functionality also is of great importance to me. That is why many of my pieces are multifunctional, which means they can be worn two or even three different ways. For example, [my] floral studs can be worn with or without a hoop portion, or a brass plate or a crystal ear jacket. This is really useful when wanting something that is practical enough for every day and special enough for an occasion."
Of course, like many parents, this year has brought an additional challenge to Vania's already quite full plate: homeschooling. After hesitating, she and her husband decided to dive in, even though they never expected to end up homeschooling their children:
"Homeschooling had absolutely never been in the cards for us. [The virus] most definitely was the thing that pushed us to look into it. When schools closed in March, we decided to take the reins of their education in our hands. We dove into learning about all the different possibilities, and we were quickly overwhelmed with the number of options out there.
"I decided to do year-round schooling with the boys since, like me, they too thrive off of structure and scheduling."
The journey toward marrying motherhood with entrepreneurship hasn't always been easy, but Vania says it helps that she enjoys staying busy:
"I thrive off of staying busy. I think drive and motivation are huge pieces of my personality, but I am also mindful to only ever delve into businesses that I am fully passionate about. I believe that to be successful we must enjoy each and every step of the process, not just an end goal."
Vania and her husband have definitely experienced tremendous highs and painful periods of struggle through their journey as parents. She's especially open about her oldest son's behavioral struggles and is refreshingly candid about how they have impacted the rest of the family:
"After years of struggles with behavioral issues, we found a program that was completely unconventional, specifically designed for power children — kids who have a strong desire to lead. Long story short, we have studied, been humbled, undergone many mindset shifts, and acquired some life-changing skills. All these tools have made parenting a most empowering and pleasant experience. I would compare it to being knowledgeable about a healthy diet versus not knowing or foreseeing what food does to the body. "
In fact, the program has totally transformed their home life, which she credits with making nearly everything the family does, together and separately, much easier:
"Positive parenting has transformed me more than any other experience. We went from utter dysfunction to having the family we had always hoped for. We now parent with firmness and kindness, we engage our sons' critical thinking skills, we don't use shame, guilt, bribes, or rewards.
"We now encourage the boys to look within themselves to solve their own problems. We don't overpower them if they're having big feelings; rather, we hold space for them through those feelings and always meet them on the other side with whatever teachable moment is appropriate. So in short, I feel blessed to be parenting them and to have been shaped and reshaped by my kids. To have been able to be pushed to be the best version of myself thus far."
As if running one business and homeschooling two kids isn't enough, Vania also has a brand-new project: The Visual Poetic. While she describes it as a "passion project" for now, it's not too hard to imagine that The Visual Poetic will take off soon. Designed for visual dual-language learners, the Italian and English learning tools are beautiful and educational.
She explains that the idea came to her out of personal need:
"It was born from a personal need I had when I [was] searching for Italian learning tools for my kids. I was specifically looking for Italian flashcards for my boys, as they both really learn well with a flashcard system. Not finding anything at all like what I wanted, my mind began to spin with ideas."
She's still working on the project, but the goal is to create a truly helpful educational hub for children (and adults) who learn best visually:
"The Visual Poetic will be a source for bilingual tools for visual learners. It will include Italian/English flashcards, homeschool tools, and study posters to make a memorable impact and instruct on easy phonetics. One of the projects I'm most excited about is perhaps the Kids' Handbook I have created. It will be filled with over a dozen wondrous pages of vocabulary, interactive activities, memorable visuals, recipes, and handwriting exercises."
Vania cherishes her ability to work from home and to also parent her children, and she stresses that working from home is just as valid as any other kind of job. She says that if another mom is interested in making working from home work for herself, the best thing to do is to ask other women what it's really like:
"I suppose my wish would just be to ask questions to those moms you may know who work from home, seek to understand what their busy schedule might look like, truly take an interest in learning about them and offer support when needed."
