Masters student and content creator shares experience of motherhood using content creation

A Financial Technology student has shared how starting a Masters has given her a new sense of purpose as both a mother and a content creator.

MSc Financial Technology student Samia Hasanat decided to pursue a Masters degree at Glasgow Caledonian after losing her sense of self as a new mother.

Samia, who was already an active content creator, decided to use her platform to speak candidly about the difficulties of motherhood – including Post-Partum depression. This decision helped spark a new community of followers, who all felt that they could relate to Samia’s experiences.

With some support from her family, Samia decided to prioritise her own needs and pursue the Masters that she has always imagined doing:

Making the decision to return to her studies

“I really had no plans of doing a Masters anytime soon, because I had recently become a mum. She's about 21 months old now, and I have been going through a postpartum depression, as I began handling the new phase of being a mum. It was all new to me, and especially away from family, it was quite difficult to take in.

I felt like, though I enjoyed taking care of my baby, I felt I was losing a part of myself. It was like I was losing my identity. Like, who am I? I was so consumed with the motherhood phase.

So that's when my husband came in to give me a gentle push. He said: “You know what? You should pursue a Masters degree. You have been always wanting to do it, so why not now?”. It was already so difficult, I couldn’t even imagine doing a Masters on top of that.

He said just to go for it and try it. Though I complain, I really like challenge. I'm that kind of a person that will complain about it, but I will do it.

That's when I was like “Yeah, let's give it a shot” and that's when I applied for the Masters here. I was quite scared, but then when I came here, I felt like “Wow, I do like being a student.” I found a sense of purpose. I was finding myself again.

I really wanted to do a Masters in another subject, even in something I didn’t have any prior knowledge of. It’s been a challenge, especially going from a Business Management degree. I’m now seeing totally a different side of it, but I'm really enjoying it.

The modules which I found difficult were the ones I actually earned good scores. It was really encouraging and also a lot of fun!

I was able to get that ‘me time’ and felt that I was really doing something for myself. GCU had helped me find that purpose in life, you could say. I feel like making this decision has really healed me.

Now, I know that I can take care of my baby and also I have something to do for myself. That’s a really important thing, especially as a mum.

Being a wife, a mother and taking care of home can make it easy to lose yourself in that process. You need that support system and encouragement at home. Without them, it's impossible. As of now, I'm here at the university, I'm doing my classes because my mum came to help too. She's like my anchor, she's taking care of my baby while I can attend classes and study.”

Samia’s authentic style of content creation

“I’ve been doing content creation for the last 10 years, but I actually started off as a freelance Henna artist. I enjoy connecting with people, so it was a nice way to sit down, get to know them and know their stories.

Later, I discovered that I enjoyed doing makeup, dressing up and posting about it on Instagram. After that, I realised that people were slowly starting to follow me and I found myself starting to post a mixture of aspects of my life, such as lifestyle and cooking. Whatever was going on in my life, I would share it and people seem to like it. It was another way of connecting with people who were going through the same situation as me.

I used to do makeup tutorials and skincare reviews, and that’s when brands began reaching out to work with me. They commented on how natural I was with my reviews were and that they want people like me to help share their brand or product.

For me, it’s really important for me to be as relatable and authentic as possible and I think a lot of people resonated with that. When I was going through Post-Partum depression, I would share my thoughts and feelings about it and the nature of motherhood. The reality is that it’s not always pretty and glamorous – motherhood is very raw.

There is beauty in it, but there is also a dark side which people don’t often speak about. My content did really start blowing up when I spoke about it so it was an amazing way to find people like me. That really acted as a healing point for me, knowing that there are more mothers feeling the same way. It made me realise that we have to be honest and talk about it.”

The importance of prioritising your own needs

“I would tell them just go for it. Don't wait for the perfect moment because there is no perfect moment.

I ask myself “Why I'm doing this?” and it’s because I want to be an inspiration to my daughter so that she can see that, as a woman, you also have your own identity. You do not have to consume yourself with other roles. If you have the willpower, you can climb mountains.”

You can follow Samia’s content creation journey on her Instagram page

By Rachael McAlonan

Got a student story that you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing me at Rachael.McAlonan@gcu.ac.uk