allaboutadvocacy.com

Mom as the Truman Show

Want to know what it takes to be a professional advocate online?  Check out today’s article (and discussion) about 32-year old Heather Armstrong (pictured above), the hip often outrageous but always influential mom and author of the 59th most popular blog going on the Web: Dooce.com.  As the reigning top blogger on all matters parenting and mom, she is one of the new faces of influence today.

Always on the lookout for clues to what makes an advocate truly an advocate, this look into Heather’s life, and the toll it can take, caught our attention.   Knowledge, passion, committment, openness, a unique POV and voice, and willingness to flout convention.   These qualities and more of a parent advocate, some suprising (like her penchant for vulgarity) some not, are on full display on dooce.com, along with quirky items like a daily photo of her “SuperMutt,” Chuck.  See what is outshining the 200,000 plus other parenting bloggers in the world today and generating a whopping 4 million page views a month.  Plus advertising from the likes of BMW and Verizon.

Peter Weir, director of “The Truman Show,” commenting on how the 1998 movie starring Jim Carrey predicted the rise of reality television once said: “This was a dangerous film to make because it couldn’t happen. How ironic.”  Heather’s story, and bouts with mental illness, need for therapy, lack of privacy, show that it is indeed no cake walk. 

Truman, in a quest for freedom, walks off the make-believe set at the end of the movie and into a life (a happier one we hope) out of the 24/7 public eye.  How will Heather’s own life-as-movie end online?  After seven years of blogging, it’s not clear it will or even has to.