16: TikTok Famous @shawnathemom Does It All!

Update: 2025-07-22

Description

In this episode of the TikTok FAMOUS™️ Podcast, host Meredyth Willits sits down with the brilliantly unfiltered Shawna the Mom, actor, writer, viral content creator, and the one-woman showrunner behind TikTok’s favorite dysfunctional family. Known for her emotionally charged skits, relatable characters, and brutal honesty about motherhood, marriage, trauma, and healing, Shawna is not just telling stories, she’s helping people see themselves in them.

What started as a few skits about new-mom frustrations has now become a deeply layered series tackling everything from postpartum depression to abortion rights, all delivered through the lens of her fictional family’s chaos.

Together, they dive into:

✅ How she accidentally created an entire universe of complex, flawed, and hilarious characters
✅ What it means to be emotionally present—even when others aren’t
✅ The backstory behind Barb, Jennifer, Frank, and why every villain has a wound
✅ Why postpartum mental health deserves honest screen time
✅ How cancer and motherhood rewired her entire sense of self

They also get real about creative healing, boundary-setting, people-pleasing, and the beauty of building a career outside the industry machine. Whether you’re a parent, a creator, or someone navigating the mess of family dynamics, this conversation is a masterclass in truth-telling with humor and heart.

🎧 Tune in to hear how Shawna is:

✨ Using storytelling to reflect real trauma and triumph
✨ Creating space for emotional intelligence in comedy
✨ Writing a show that feels like therapy in 60-second episodes
✨ Redefining what it means to be a “mom content creator”

00:00 Introduction to the TikTok FAMOUS™️ Podcast

00:45 Meet Shawna the Mom and the origin of “Barb”

02:30 Creating a full-blown soap opera from mom skits

04:00 How the character Jennifer became everyone’s least favorite sister-in-law

05:30 Giving backstory to villains—and why it makes us uncomfortable

07:00 What acting training taught her about nuance, emotion, and presence

09:00 The loneliness of 2 a.m. motherhood and realizing she wasn’t alone

11:00 Writing the whole series through the end of the year

13:00 How the Barb and Frank dynamic reflects anxious/avoidant patterns

15:30 Portraying abortion in the series—and why she had to go there

17:30 Healthcare, legislation, and the real human cost of abortion bans

19:00 Why she made the doctor sane instead of sensational

20:30 One-woman creative process: no writing team, no filter

22:00 Reading comments and staying rooted in her own truth

24:00 Why she used Barb to reflect on postpartum depression

26:00 Lack of real motherhood representation in media

28:00 Playing the “good mom” and “bad mom” at the same time

30:00 Touching topics like postpartum OCD and anxiety

32:00 Her background in psychology and self-research as a new mom

34:00 Healthy boundaries that feel violent for people-pleasers

36:00 Cancer, identity shifts, and refusing to abandon herself

38:00 Facing mortality and the post-cancer “factory reset”

40:00 YOLO energy and living without shame or delay

42:00 Building a full-time career as a creator (and actor at heart)

43:00 How TikTok changed her trajectory—and her own community did too

45:00 Getting recognized in public and building a beautiful comment section

47:00 Dreams of stage, screen, and what might come next

49:00 The butterfly effect of trauma, character building, and creative genius

51:00 Thank yous, final thoughts, and Shawna’s powerful reminder: you are not alone