I waited until the last possible moment to become a parent. When I did, I joined a select group of privileged women – I have an MFA, a successful freelance career, a supportive husband. I also had a healthy dose of cynicism. I wasn’t going to trade in my career as a photographer and TV producer for homemade baby food and Mommy & Me.

 

Then I had my son, and traveling for work was no longer realistic. I chose jobs closer to home; I pumped breast milk in a bathroom stall. The logistics of motherhood began to take over. I was being assimilated into a system I had vowed to resist.

 

I began work on Mothers in the Middle in 2014, following four working moms who were at career and personal crossroads. Their struggles and my own offer a rarely seen, intimate portrait of full-time, middle-income, working mothers. It's the story of major life decisions made amid endless loads of laundry and busy jobs, and a group of women whose stories light a clear path towards change.

- Lauren Hollingsworth