I Don't Want to Be a Mom

What does choice really mean for a woman?

In I Don't Want to Be a Mom, Irene Olmo recounts her coming-of-age transformation from assuming she will one day start a family to realizing that she just doesn't want to be a mom. With an affecting mix of humor and introspection, she describes the subtle and not-so-subtle ways she was pressured to have children and the feelings of isolation and self-doubt that ensued. Her delightful full-color illustrations capture perfectly the maddeningly narrow-minded reactions of those around her as well as her own discomfort and frustration.

A true story of liberation and self-empowerment in the face of societal prejudice, I Don't Want to Be a Mom questions the imposition of motherhood on women as both an expectation and a path toward fulfillment. It shows us that "choice" has more than one dimension and that, ultimately, some questions in life are more complicated than they seem.

Irene Olmo is a prize-winning illustrator who studied at the Facultad de Bellas Artes de Sevilla and the Facultad de Bellas Artes de Valencia. She currently resides in Cordoba, where she is employed by the studio Azulmarino, working on projects for a variety of publishers, including Anaya, Santillana, and Oxford University Press.