Blunt Blowin’ Mama: Influencer Profile

Blunt
Courtesy of Blunt Blowing Mama

Blunt Blowin’ Mama is switching things up for the world of cannabis

Many social influencers are exactly what you would expect: white, blond, traditionally attractive, making their bucks by resembling celebrities and having good taste in cannabis. But if you look just a bit further, there is myriad unique and powerful influencers who don’t fit that basic mode. 

One of those is Shonitria Anthony, the woman behind the Blunt Blowin’ Mama social-media platform. A Black mom who smokes weed and also a journalist, Anthony started her social and digital platform to create a place where women like her could connect and be seen. It’s not just for women of color and moms, although that is the focus; it’s for anyone who uses cannabis and leads a proactive life but doesn’t see enough people who look like themselves doing just that. 

“Blunt Blowin’ Mama is a cannabis lifestyle platform that aims to normalize conversation around cannabis,” Anthony explained. “I just wanted to normalize that it’s okay if you’re a parent who consumes cannabis, and I also wanted to amplify voices of women of color with this platform, my podcast, my website, the Instagram page and merchandise.”

Blunt
Courtesy of Blunt Blowin’ Momma

Blunt Blowin’ and Advocacy

Originally inspired to action because all the articles she found on moms who use cannabis only featured middle-aged, white women, Anthony saw space in the industry that was in desperate need of being filled. 

“I couldn’t relate to those women, and then I didn’t really see anyone who was really influential or an influencer who looked like me, and I was really disappointed,” she said. “I was like, I’m a wife; I’m a mom; I smoke weed and I have a lot of Black friends who smoke weed, so I can’t be the only one.” 

Through selling merchandise with slogans like “Moms Who Smoke Weed Are Not Bad Moms” and “First I Smoke Weed, Then I Do Things,” Anthony is working to tear down the stigma that Black mothers who use cannabis are lazy or irresponsible. 

For the most part, Anthony has only positive things to say about the way social media has given her a platform to connect with other women. However, she readily admits that social media can be frustrating as well. 

“I’m sure you know this as well, but it’s not exactly easy to manage a social-media platform when you’re talking about cannabis,” Anthony said. “You can’t run ads. It’s hard to run a business when you can’t run ads like you would for any other social-media platform or merchandising business.” 

Still, despite these setbacks, Anthony is poised to continue taking on the world of cannabis and social-media influencers with her unique brand. 

With a background as a journalist, it was the natural next step to go from blogging and writing for sites like HuffPost to doing a podcast and being an influencer. Frustrated that she wasn’t hearing enough real, raw stories on folks in the cannabis industry, Anthony decided to create her own podcast. 

“I always knew I wanted to share the stories of women, especially women of color, and especially Black women, and I knew that I wanted to highlight different types of lifestyles,” Anthony explained. “I try my best to talk about different types of couples; I interviewed a polyamorous triad, lesbian couples and queer couples, women-run companies and companies run by people who identify as queer. I try to be as inclusive as possible because, as a Black woman, I know what it feels like to be excluded.”

While some of these connections might be hard to come by, social media has opened up avenues for Anthony that allow her to connect with those who contribute to her message. 

“I have followers who live in India, huge fans in Brazil or the UK and Canada, and people who would never have known this platform exists if it weren’t for social media, especially Instagram,” she said.

“I think there’s definitely something to be said for the evils of social media, but it does do one thing really well that no one can argue with, and that’s connect people. I’ve been able to find my tribe, and I’ve actually been able to connect and make friends with other like-minded women. It’s hard to make friends with other women, especially moms who smoke weed, because they may have a certain type of career, or their partner has a certain type of career, and they may not talk about it much. That’s why I’m so grateful for Instagram, because it’s connected me to so many amazing people.” 

bluntblowinmama.com

Read this story originally published in High Times July 2021 Issue in our archive.

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