Move Over Tradwives: Now ‘Breadmakers’ Are Making Chores Pay
Disillusioned with corporate culture, a new generation of women is using social media to monetize work that has always gone unpaid.
Mia Astill photographed in her home on March 2.
Photographer: Emli Bendixen for BloombergSitting by the fireplace in Mia Astill’s 19th century village cottage, my eyes are drawn to her perfectly manicured hands. Her nails are always painted the same shade of pale, slightly peachy beige, Astill says. Officially, it’s 19 BIAB from GelBottle Inc.; Astill calls it “raw chicken skin.”
Those hands are her tools, used for vacuuming, scrubbing countertops or cleaning grass stains from clothes. When Astill’s 9-year-old is asked at school what her mother does for work, she answers “cleaner.” It’s not quite right, but Astill doesn’t like to correct her daughter: Her hands cut butter and stir soups, too, and edit everything into videos for distribution across social media.