STELLA|1SEPTEMBER 2019 15MOTHERPUKKA
THE
CAMPAIGNERANNA WHITEHOUSE, BETTER known by
her 215,000 Instagram followers as Moth er
Pukka,is sitting inthesunny garden of her
eastLondonhomedescribingherrecentvis-
it to Parliament.Nearby, her elderdaughter
Mae, six ,isbouncingexcitedlyonatramp o-
line,supervisedbyAnna’ssmilin gparents,
Chrisand Lucia (aka Grandfather Pukka and
Grandmother Pukka on Instagram). When
hertoddler ,Eve,grows fractious, she’s
whiskedinsidetobeconsoledbyAnna’shus-
band,authorandjournalistMattFarquhar-
son–orPapaPukka,ifyouplease.
It’steamwork,Pukka-style, withevery-
one pitching in–and, t oanyone who’s
checkedout Instagram lately,itprobably
looksfamiliar. The Pukkas arepioneers of a
very modern, egalitarian, flexibleway of
living,and they’r eusing socialmedia to
change th eway welive,too.From@papa_
pukka, 42,withhis 46,500followers, to
67-year-old @grandmother_pukka, withher
23,800-stron gaudience, to@grandfather_launchedthree yearsago,her Flex Appeal
campaign(to impr ove access to flexible
working,whether part-time, remotely, job
sharingor ‘irregular’hours for parents and
non-parents alike)has beengathe ring mo-
mentum. Butthis summer,Annatookher
lobbying upanotch withthe Flex ForAllpetiti on,whichdemandsthelawbechanged
so employers mustpublish flexible-working
options in jobadverts (currently just onein
10jobsare advertis edassuch),andensureall
employeeshave theright to request flexible
workingatanystageoftheiremployment.
Since2014, allBritishemployeeswho
have worked foracompanyfor morethanshe has thewholehea rted support of her
famil y. Between posting abouttheirparent-
ing and grandparenting antics,Matt and
Luciaboth regularlyhighli ghtthe campaign
on their social feeds. And in 2016,Chris
launchedhis Instagram lifeasawaytos up-
porthisdaughter. ‘Ifelt thetimewas right to
break covertoshowsupport for thehuge
effor tAnnahas madein pr omoting Flex Ap-
peal,’reads thepostfromMay 2017, along
withadaddy-daughtersnap.
As well as campaigning,Anna alsowrites
twomagazinecolumnsand presents aradio
showfor HeartFM, a nd has partnerships
withbrandssuch asBoots andBoden.Add
in parenting dutieswithMae and Eveand
thebookshe andMatt have justfinished
(theirsecond),and it ’s exhaustingjustthink-
ing a bout theplates she’s spinning.In per-
son, she’s awhirlwind of energy, her voice
crackling withpurposeasshe explainsthe
verypersonaloriginsofh ercrusade.
GrowingupinavillageinBuckingham-EmilyGr
ayPho tography
six months have beenlegally entit ledtore-
quest flexibleworking,but all toooften em-
ployers denythese requests. Thepetiti on,
which Anna launchedinalliance withthe
FawcettSociety,Pregnant Then Screwed
and TheFatherho od Institute, has already
beensignedmorethan30,000times and in
July,Helen WhatelyMPintroduceditasa
bill in Parliament.The previousday,Anna
took Maealongwithher when she inter-
viewed Helen intheCommons. Laughing,
she recalls:‘Wewent intothis suited-and-
booted, grey arenawithPeppa Pigparapher-
naliastreamingoutofourbags.’
Hervoice turningseriou s, she says:‘Ifwe
want togetthe best out of each individual,
regardless ofwhether they’r eparents or not,
we need afundamental shiftint he waywe
all work.Weneedto changethe la wtomake
flexibleworkingavailable by defaultand put
theonusontheemployertoofferit.’
Althoughit’sAnna whorunsFlexAppeal,shire withher youngersister Karen,she
recognisedthe benefits of flexibleworking
early on when herfather left hisjob a ta
management consultancy to work from
home.Hermother ,who had givenupher
careerasaPAtoraise their c hildren,helped
withthe admin.‘Igrewupwithhim doing
school runs,which changed my perspec-
tive,’ saysA nna.
She studiedlaw at university,hoping to
become abarrister, ‘but Icouldn’tseeany
women of childbearing agewho’d broken
into that world’.Instead, shebegan working
as ajournalist forpublications such asHorti-
cultureWeek.Aged24, she metMatt, who
worked on another magazine inthesame
company. ‘WemovedtoDubai afterwe’d
beentogetherfor 46 days,’she says.‘Matt
wasofferedajoboutthereandalthougheve-
ryone said,“What areyou doing?”Iknewit
was right.’ Matt realisedhewantedtomarry
herminutesintotheirfirstconversation.pukka,whohas amoremodestfollowing,
they ar eaforce tobe reckonedwithacross
genderandagebrackets.
At its heartis Anna,the38-year-old blog-
gerand Instagram ‘mum-fluencer’, whohas
wonanarmyofdevotees with herdisarming
frankness aboutthetriumphs, aswell as fre-
quentindignities,ofparenting small chil-
dren.Herfollowers devourthewitty and
sometimesheartb reakingly rawsnippetsshe
andMattshareoft hei rlifewithMaeandtwo-
year-old Eve: everything from Annaposting
apost-partum pictureofherself inabikini,
hashtagged#lovehandleisland,tothe cou-
ple’smoving accounts ofthefive miscarriag-
estheysufferedontheirpathtoparenthood.
Annastandsout asarelatable mummy
blogger–someoneyou’d wanttoshareabot-
tleofpicpoul with. Butwhat reallysetsher
apartist hatinsteadofmerel ydocumenting
her day-to-day domestic reality,Annais
trying to improve it –and ours, too. SinceitAnna leading the first Flex
Appeal flash mobin2 016Anna addressesthe Marchofthe
Mummies protest in London, 2017Anna andMatt taketheir
campaignto No 10,2017‘I wassostressed,apologising all thetime
for leaving meetings,forbeinglate
for pickup.Ithought, “It’snot my fault”’
Document: 1015CC-STMMA-1-010919-A015C-XX.pdf;Format:(205.00
x260.00 mm);Date: 27.Aug 2019 16:10:05; Telegraph
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