Model and content creator says having children young has not held her back professionally, but balancing family life and ambition takes planning, sacrifice and learning to give herself grace.
Nara Smith has built an online world that many people recognise for its beautifully styled outfits, elaborate homemade recipes and soft-spoken narration.
But away from the carefully produced cooking videos, the 24-year-old model and content creator is navigating another demanding role: raising four young children while building a growing business.
In a candid conversation with entrepreneur Emma Grede on her podcast, ‘Aspire with Emma Grede’, Smith opened up about motherhood, working long hours, dealing with online criticism and the realities of being a young mother with an ambitious career.
Smith, who shares four children with her husband, model Lucky Blue Smith, said her mornings are often spent preparing school lunches and getting her eldest child ready for school.
With children aged five, four, two and 11 months, life at home is far from quiet.
Asked how she manages to balance motherhood and work, Smith gave an honest answer that challenges the idea that women can have everything perfectly organised.
“There is no balance. You try your best every day,” she said.
She explained that she has learnt to prioritise different aspects of her life, making intentional time for her children while also allowing herself to focus on her professional commitments.
“I know that I’ll have a certain time of week where I’ll go have get my nails done with my daughter or I’ll go play football with my son or whatever it may be having quality time,” she explained.
For Smith, being a present mother does not necessarily mean being available every hour of the day.
Her work often stretches into the early hours of the morning, with the creator revealing that she sometimes calls her agents at 1am to discuss upcoming opportunities and business commitments.
“I’m up very, very late, up very early. I call my agents at 1am,” she told Grede.
The conversation also explored whether having children so young had affected her career.
Smith became a mother at 19 and welcomed her fourth child at 23. She explained that having children young was something she and Lucky had discussed and wanted for their family.
“I couldn’t be more grateful because I don’t think kids hold you back. You just have to plan more and schedule more and outsource help if you need to,” she said.
She added that motherhood had not made a major difference to what she could achieve professionally and, if anything, had inspired her to work harder.
However, getting to a place where she could manage both responsibilities required trial and error.
Smith admitted that she returned to shooting content just two weeks after giving birth to her third child.
She described herself as a workaholic and said the experience taught her that she could not manage everything without support.
When one of her children became sick, the family had to rethink how they approached childcare, bringing in help from relatives and hiring a nanny.
“It really took a lot of trial and error and a lot of guilt on my behalf,” she said.
“There’s no way we can juggle careers, travelling, a sick kid, all of that without any help.”
One of the more interesting parts of the conversation was how Smith decides which professional opportunities deserve her time.
Rather than accepting every offer that comes her way, she considers whether an opportunity will contribute meaningfully to her business.
“I usually always weigh the opportunity. I say, okay, is this opportunity going to move the needle for me and my business?” she explained.
If it does, she looks for ways to make it work around her family. If it does not, she is comfortable turning it down.
She also said she never wants her children to grow up believing that they were responsible for her missing out on professional opportunities.
“I never want them to feel like that was something that I am projecting onto them,” she said.
Smith also spoke about the pressure of being a public figure and how online criticism affected her, particularly during pregnancy and after giving birth.
She revealed that she experienced postpartum depression and anxiety during that period, saying some of the comments about her left her deeply upset.
“In the beginning it really got to me,” she admitted.
Over time, however, she learnt to separate genuine opinions from comments intended to hurt her.
“A sane person would honestly just keep swiping or block you and just be done. They wouldn’t sit and craft up a hateful, mean comment,” she said.
She also explained that she uses two phones to create a boundary between her social media work and personal life. One allows her to post content and interact with her online community, while the other is used for her personal conversations.
Smith believes some of the criticism comes from people interpreting her online presence as a representation of a perfect life.
“Maybe I represent things that are a little too perfect that aren’t realistic to some people,” she reflected.
However, she stressed that what audiences see online is only what she chooses to share.
“I’m never saying, hey, I’m this perfect person because I am not,” she said.
“What you see is a good moment and whatever I decide to put out. I’m not showing you me crying or me driving to the hospital”.
Her conversation with Grede also touched on the importance of women being allowed to choose different paths without being judged for them.
Smith said she considers raising her children while pursuing her ambitions one of the most meaningful parts of her life.
“I think it’s a superpower raising the next generation and doing that in the best way you can and showing them everything you have to give,” she said.
Looking towards the future, Smith is also expanding beyond content creation.
She revealed that she is exploring acting, publishing and building a consumer goods brand, while continuing to develop her existing business interests.
For now, however, she is trying to approach the next chapter with less pressure to get everything right.
“I want to be the best version of myself, show up for myself, my kids, my business, for everyone around me,” she said.
“And also just giving myself grace. I think I’ve been so hard on myself. I think as women we are hard on ourselves… so just give yourself a little bit of grace.”
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