The Invisible Hustle:
International Womens Day 2025
Creative Boom Article by Abbey Bamford with contribution by The Colour Suite Founder, Louise Lucas
The creative industries love a hustle story, whether they're tales of founders grinding late into the night, passionate freelancers juggling side gigs, or studio heads making magic on tight deadlines. But for many creative women, particularly mothers, there's a quieter, more complex hustle happening behind the scenes.
It's the constant balancing act between parenting and pitching, between nurturing new ideas and small humans, and between building careers and building Lego towers. It's an invisible hustle that's rarely talked about in the glossy narratives of creative success and one that fundamentally shapes how creative mothers work, lead, and define success on their own terms.
This International Women's Day, Creative Boom asked creative mothers — from freelancers to founders to creative directors — how motherhood has shaped their careers, creativity, and views on what real flexibility in the creative industries should look like. Their stories are messy, inspiring, frustrating, and real, but most of all, they challenge the idea that motherhood is something to work around. Instead, it's a creative force to be reckoned with.