Meet Bhavya Gandhi, Mom Influencer Busting Pregnancy Myths

Social Media influencer Bhavya M. Gandhi creates content to address much-needed yet less-spoken issues such as body positivity and equal parenting. Gandhi is a plus-size influencer and has a massive following on Instagram and Facebook.

Ahead of Parents Day, the mother of two girls aged six and four spoke exclusively to SheThePeople about her journey, her motives, challenges, opportunities, and more.

Talking about her journey, Gandhi revealed being in a nuclear family right from marriage had made her and her husband a team. "We’ve always taken equal responsibility for household chores. When we had our first daughter, we were new parents learning to navigate through parenting together. Eventually, I got pregnant with my second daughter, and my husband was always there to take care of the elder one, domestic chores, and more. To date, he contributes equally in every way he can." 

Gandhi highlighted on the balance between making content featuring her children and protecting their virtual privacy. Gandhi said, "I ensure to limit their involvement in my work to the minimum possible. I also make sure I make content featuring them beforehand and post it at a later date, and I never use geotags on content featuring them."

Like many other women on social media, Bhavya too combats negative comments, judgement, and unsolicited advice on social media. But being a person who strongly believes in her way of parenting, she never lets them get to her. "Whatever content I put out might not be acceptable for some people, which is fine. But criticising or judging me is also something I can deal with, but commenting on my children is where I draw the line. If it helps you, please follow; if not, just ignore."

Gandhi disclosed that, as a new parent in a nuclear family, setting up social media helped her vastly.

"I was a part of social media communities where I sought suggestions, parenting hacks, and tips from fellow mothers. Then I went on to create my own communities on Facebook and Instagram because I strongly believe that every mother needs a community to raise her children. Protected social media communities are a safe place to do just that, and my community is my little contribution to society."

Challenges 

The challenging part for Gandhi as a social media influencer was creating content that was interesting and acceptable to both men and women. "Getting people to listen to what you’ve got to say is a huge challenge because the minute I mention equal parenting, women might be interested in the content but men might not. To get them to listen, I need to keep creating exciting and intriguing content and sometimes recreate the same content in different ways."

Gandhi also shared that despite the challenges, the most rewarding factor of being a social media influencer is the impact she has on people. Even if there’s one person in whose life I make a difference, it’s a big win for me. Also, I’ve noticed how my mother-in-law has changed. She understands that in our home, all responsibilities are equal and encourages my husband to be an equal partner.

Bhavya Gandhi On Equal Parenting

Given the patriarchal influence in our society, it isn’t easy to make men understand that parenting is an equal responsibility. She suggested that expectant mothers and new mothers must involve their husbands right from the moment they conceive. "When I was expecting my daughter, my husband used to accompany me to every doctor's appointment. The father connecting with the baby right from the womb makes it easier after the baby is born because they would have already established a bond."

Gandhi explained that discussing, involving, and making the men understand how important their contribution to parenting is right from the beginning makes a difference. She also recommended giving the father and children a lot of time to bond helps a lot.

Busting Myth Around Plus-size Woman And Pregnancy

When asked what motivated her to talk about body positivity on social media, Gandhi revealed that, like many women, she has also dealt with negativity from society for being a plus-size woman. "People have always said that since I was plus-size, I would have issues finding a partner, getting pregnant, delivering a child, etc. However, I got married into a very nice family. I have a very supportive husband, where my body is never a problem and nobody judges me by my weight."

"I wanted to bust that myth because I was around 80 kg when I conceived my daughters. Despite what people said, I conceived naturally and had no complications during pregnancy. So I want to make it known to other women that body size isn’t the only factor that will determine your pregnancy journey. With a healthy lifestyle, even a plus-size woman can have a smooth pregnancy," explained Gandhi about how she was driven to talk about body positivity on social media. 

"Also, I have two daughters, and I want to do my bit to change the narrative so that my daughters don’t have to hear the negativity and the trauma that I had to deal with," she added.

Addressing the unrealistic beauty standards in society, Bhavya noted that it was very unfair and people needed to stop putting pressure on women to look certain ways. "I keep communication going so that I do my bit to make people understand that every woman’s body is unique and they have their way of dealing with it."

"Women, on the other hand, need to be happy with their bodies, regardless of what society and the media instill in their minds. They need to do things for their bodies only because they want to do them and not because society expects it of them," said Gandhi, encouraging women to embrace their bodies without giving in to social pressure.

Handling Negativity

Speaking about the negative comments that female influencers are subjected to on social media, Gandhi said that after two-plus years, she just laughs them off. "It was a long journey, though. Initially, I used to feel very bad when people commented on hurtful stuff, dismissing the work I'd put into the content. But eventually, I started focusing on the positive comments, which are the majority, and ignoring the negative ones."

She also said that she would give a large part of the credit to her husband for being such a huge support system right from the beginning of her journey. "From helping me with technology to cheering me up when I’m low, he does it all," she said.

Gandhi also has a community on coto called the "Plussize & Body positivity" where she posts content that encourages other women to be comfortable in their skin, love themselves, embrace their bodies, and have a positive attitude toward themselves and life. Bhavya is now looking forward to expanding her community so that she can reach out to a larger audience.

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