Through satirical self-portraits, I explore my lifelong absence of maternal instinct and the decision to remain child-free, despite growing up within the expectations of a middle-class Midwestern narrative. My pets have become my children: loyal, dependent, and innocent companions who mirror the emotional bonds often associated with parenthood.

This work challenges cultural norms that continue to measure a woman’s worth through reproduction. It reflects a generational shift in which many are choosing not to have children—not only from personal preference, but out of awareness of a fragile political, environmental, and social future. In this world, pets become the safer dependents—beings we can love and nurture without burdening them with human uncertainty.

By parodying familiar tropes of motherhood photography, I ask: is choosing not to have children an act of selfishness, or a radical form of responsibility? DOGMOM exists in the tension between satire and sincerity, questioning how care, identity, and legacy are being redefined beyond traditional motherhood.