She turned a hashtag into a community that is changing how mothers see themselves
Joquetta Wright did not set out to build a nonprofit. She set out to be honest. A simple hashtag shared on her personal social media turned into a community of mothers who recognized themselves in her words, and Free Mama Movement was born from that moment.
Wright serves as founder and executive director of the Charleston, South Carolina-based organization, which centers on helping mothers hold onto their identity while raising their children. Through events, storytelling, and its signature fashion platform, the Poised and Proper Free Mama Fashion Show, Wright has built something that started as a feeling and grew into a full movement.
A hashtag that became a community
Wright says the idea grew out of a personal tension she could not ignore after becoming a mother.
“Before motherhood, I felt like myself. I was an individual, I had my own things, I did my own things,” she said. “There were moments where I’m like, I want people to ask about me, I want to talk about me, I don’t want to just be identified as his mom.”
She began sharing those feelings online, tagging posts with the phrase “free mama” whenever she was doing something for herself. The response was immediate. Mothers started dming her, tagging her in their own posts, and sharing moments of personal freedom, a solo lunch, a spa day, a few quiet minutes alone.
“It truly started from me being honest about what I was experiencing through motherhood,” Wright said. “And moms were receiving it.”
Why community matters for mothers
Wright is quick to point out that isolation in motherhood is not always obvious. She was the first in her friend group to have a child, and even with a supportive family around her, she found herself navigating early motherhood mostly alone.
“I’m struggling internally with figuring out a babysitter, figuring out if I’m okay with leaving him, is everything gonna be okay,” she said. “That mom guilt is real.”
She eventually reached out to a friend who was pregnant at the same time, and a single text exchange helped her solve a breastfeeding challenge she had been suffering through on her own. That moment confirmed what she already suspected.
“I have to have a mom in my life for every milestone,” Wright said. “I don’t care what you’re going through, there is somebody else experiencing it at the same time, or who already has. It helps you not feel insane. Motherhood is crazy.”
Free Mama on the runway
The Poised and Proper Free Mama Fashion Show started in 2024 as a way to bring that same sense of belonging into a live experience. Wright wanted to merge fashion and motherhood in a way that gave mothers permission to take up space. She made mothers the models, reached out to local boutique owners and designers, and most of them turned out to be mothers too.
The first show sold 175 tickets. Families showed up, dads, children, and adult children filled the seats to cheer on the mothers walking the runway, most of whom had never modeled before.
“They got on that runway and acted like they do this for their career,” Wright said. “They put their heart into it.”
From Lemons to Luxe
This year’s show carried the theme “From Lemons to Luxe,” a reflection of a year Wright describes as one of the hardest of her life. Her son’s father passed away last year, and she found that other mothers in the Free Mama community had experienced similar losses.
“We’re still showing up, even when life has knocked us down,” she said. “Grief isn’t just loss of a person. It can be any hardship, any adjustment that you have to make.”
To learn more about Free Mama Movement and how to get involved, visit freemamamovement.org.