“The support that we get as a community as Black mothers is different than if you search a hashtag that’s just mom blogger. I am not negating or lessening the powerfulness of just mom blogging in general, but there’s a different set of substance and support when you pull up Black mom bloggers.” — Shina Sanabria, Mom Blogger, Entrepreneur, Be Light Holistic Healing This Sunday will be Shina Sanabria’s first Mother’s Day with her third and youngest child. “It’s just something special because the person that I am now is not the person I was when I first had my first child. I was very broken 15 years ago,” said the owner and founder of Be Light Holistic Healing and mommy blogger. And though often social media allows for some folks to paint a perfect picture of their lives, Sanabria is open about everything from being a domestic violence survivor to overcoming a debilitating autoimmune disease, and losing her sister. The self-described spiritual alchemist also never shies away from discussing the realities of parenting, race, and the evolving nature of motherhood. “I’m very transparent. I talk about the fact that my son has ADHD and the struggles that we’ve had in our relationship and me navigating parenting a special and different ability child, me being a mom to now three children,” she said. Sanabria recalls being a young mom in her early 20s and trying to parent her eldest son “without him seeing color.” But interactions at doctor’s offices and constant microaggressions, like being asked “where’s the dad?,” proved colorblind parenting to be impossible for her. “Children are innocent, so they don’t really see it, but I’m like, how can I raise my son not to see color but people see his color? I would be doing him a disservice by not teaching him to see himself in his fullness,” said Sanabria. According to Shina, experiences like those from her early days of motherhood translate to social media and highlight a major difference between the greater mom blogger community and #Blackmombloggers. And that difference may be crucial information for Black moms who may otherwise not have a community that understands the nuances of mothering while Black. “It’s very much needed right now, especially because we’re having to parent our sons and daughters with intentionality, in the sense that we have to tell them how they can show up outside,” she said. “We’re protecting them from all of the heavy things if we can, which is sad because they shouldn’t have to be that aware. They should just be able to be children.” Ultimately, Sanabria’s desire to find space and build community—both online and in the real world—informs her hopes and goals for women like her. “At the end of the day, my goal is to, number one, support women, specifically support black women or minority women because I’m Afro-Latina, to be whole and healed,” she said. “And I really hope to encourage people to express themselves in that way because it’s our birthright.” Mompreneur Shina Sanabria opens up even more about healing, intentional child rearing, and maintaining authenticity on social media in the video above. Give it a watch.