#MomGenes: Anja Tyson
You got it from your Mama!! We're taking a look at the lines of maternal heritage in our new #MomGenes series and are giddy to kick it off with one of the most charming Mom & Daughter duo's we've seen, Brooklyn-dwellers Anja Tyson and her little doll, Tilda. We're hooked on her "momspam" - she tells it like it is: raw and delightful (with a wardrobe for the books!)
There's perhaps no better style icon than The Vintage Photographed Mother. We all remember the first time we came across these old pics in the house -dumbstruck by the good hair, the hot bod, and the coolest clothes which somehow seem to rival the trends we are trying so hard to effortlessly pull off ourselves. We're taking a minute here to dust off the family photos and sort through our mamas, and their mamas, and dig around maternal lineage to hear what has been passed down through genetics and or environments, habits, and anecdotes. Anja was kind enough to share some prints from her own family album. Click for more below and get to know Anja and her #MomGenes!
My great grandmother Emma surrounded by her six sisters in 1912.
On the Left: Emma with my grandma Marion as a teenager. What strikes me the most in some of these pictures that are nearly 100 years old is how OLD moms used to look. There was no expectation for them to be sexual or desirable after they had kids. Emma is 42ish in this picture and looks 70! On the Right: Here is my grandmother at the stables as a teenager. I still have the pants she is wearing!
My mother, Carol grew up in a very religious household and as soon as she was old enough she fled to New York to be a modern dancer. She sort of just did whatever she wanted until she got married to my dad and had two kids, then she was a stay at home mom.
Version 1: Carol | Version 2: Anja | Version 3: Tilda
Here I am with my daughter, Matilda. I am not married and getting pregnant with Matilda was a surprise. I've been a single mom since she was born and we have always just been a little unit, the two of us. It is hard to trace similarities from Emma, my great grandmother, down the line to Matilda. Womens day to day lives have changed so much in the last 100 years.
I have lots of old photos and love looking back on them to see glimpses of myself in my grandmother's eyes or see how similar my mother and her mother looked. The thing I notice the most common between my pictures with my daughter and my mom's pictures with me is the overwhelming and overpowering love we look at our daughters with. I never made that facial expression prior to having a child, couldn't have if I had tried - didn't know this amount of love could even exist.
PS: Do you have any favorite family recipes, songs, or other traditions around the dinner table?
AT: Aebleskiver. My mom didn't have like a signature dish growing up, but as an adult we brought back aebleskiver and Matilda loves them.
PS: Did your mother teach you any beauty regime/tricks/rituals?
AT: My mom has always worn very little makeup and I think that has always contributed to my standard of beauty in my mind. She also has the thickest most luxurious hair I have ever seen, I have always tried to make my hair look like hers, which is a LOT of work.
PS: Any physical or habitual traits passed down?
AT: Same smile!
Carol + Anja | Anja + Tilda
PS: What sort of Collections or heirlooms have been saved through the generations?
AT: My mom's entire family are pack rats and keep everything always with no exceptions. I have all of my grandmother Marion's baby dresses and bonnets, my great-grandmother's stockings and her ascots, toys my grandmother played with as a baby, everything. My grandmother used to make custom ballgowns and fur coats for my mothers Barbies and so my mother has her original Barbies and the entire formal wardrobe that my grandmother made for them. We are heirloom heavyweights.
Little Star.
THANK YOU, THANK YOU Anja! We're enamored.
Show us your #MomGenes!! Watch this space for more stories on the long line of Mama's Mamas!