In many ways, Jessica Urlichs is just like any other working mom of three. On this harried Monday, for example, she’s a bit under the weather and longs to chill. But as she notes, “There is no chill in motherhood.”
One key difference between Urlichs and other moms is that the New Zealander is also a talented and thoughtful Sunday Times bestselling author who expresses her relatable spectrum of feelings through her writing. Her new poetry book, They Bloom Because of You: Poems on the Infinite Love, Growth and Magic of Motherhood (out March 3), is another raw and honest read that explores the subject closest to her heart.
“The one thing I really want moms to feel when they open this book is just to feel like they’re seeing their experiences and emotions laid out onto paper for them,” she says. “There are so many nuances in motherhood.” A lot of people talk about rainbows and happy, fluffy stuff when they’re raising babies, Urlichs says. “But I also feel like through the lows, there are so many highs. Two things can be true.”
Mom to Harry (8), Holly (7) and Heidi (3), Urlichs first started going public about her trials and tribulations of motherhood when her second-born was just a baby. A series of popular Instagram posts, in which she often shared her struggles with postpartum depression, turned into a community. The support inspired her to craft the acclaimed 2025 poetry collection Beautiful Chaos. (She’s also written several children’s books to help kids navigate their early years.) “I think people just saw my vulnerability,” she explains of her success. “And then I got brave about putting out poems that I thought I wouldn’t share.”
Zooming in from her home in New Zealand on a warm, summer day in late December, Urlichs talks about motherhood and more to Reader’s Digest.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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Reader’s Digest: What’s the significance of the title They Bloom Because of You?
Jessica Urlichs: It’s actually a piece taken out of one of my poems. It’s about not getting too hung up on all the things that you haven’t got but to actually look at what’s most important—the way you bring up your children and how you’re there for them. They bloom because of you.
Reader’s Digest: Is there a particular poem in the book that you’d like to highlight?
Jessica Urlichs: One of the first poems is called “There Is a Mother Somewhere.” It talks to the different seasons of motherhood. A lot of moms who have already gone through the little years, they still pick up these books and message me and say, “Thank you so much for letting me reflect and for taking me back.”
Reader’s Digest: Why focus so many of your books on motherhood?
Jessica Urlichs: Yeah, I’m definitely in the season where motherhood defines me at the moment. It’s all encompassing, and I just gather most of my inspiration through motherhood. And I also developed a bit of a niche in that area, and I found that people wanted to keep hearing more from me.
Reader’s Digest: What is it about poetry that lends itself to the subject?
Jessica Urlichs: I don’t have a lot of time! Poetry is a really nice way for me to kind of scatter my thoughts out on paper. I can just process a whirlwind of feelings going on in my head and make sense of them. Poetry is like bite-sized pieces of feelings and experiences.
Reader’s Digest: How long does it usually take you to write a poem?
Jessica Urlichs: I used to write a lot of my poems in a very sleep-deprived state—sometimes in like half an hour during 2 a.m. wake-ups, maybe even less than that. Now, I think I’m a little bit more considered. I’m not in the depths of postpartum, and I’m writing about different things about motherhood. So it could take me up to three days.
Reader’s Digest: In the book, you also write about raising a child who’s neurodivergent. Why was that important for you to share?
Jessica Urlichs: As he gets older, I tend to write more from my perspective to protect his experiences. But it’s really important to talk about the experience of raising a child with autism or ADHD because since his diagnosis, I’ve also been diagnosed with ADHD and OCD. And he was the catalyst for me looking into that myself. It’s like he was holding up a lot of mirrors to me; I’d say to myself that I need to be really calm in a situation and get myself in check because I’ve got sensory overload. I need to be his calm, not his chaos.
Reader’s Digest: What do your older kids make of your work?
Jessica Urlichs: Well, they love it because I come into their school sometimes and read my children’s books to the kids in their class. They think it’s pretty cool.
Reader’s Digest: What about your poetry? They’re probably too young to make sense of the content, but …
Jessica Urlichs: To be honest, I really hope that when they’re older and parents themselves one day, they can read the poems in this book. But I don’t want them to think, “Oh, you know, Mum found it really hard.” More like, “Wow, she loved us so much, and she’s been really vulnerable and brave enough to talk about the range of emotions that moms go through.”
Reader’s Digest: Your own mom must be very proud too.
Jessica Urlichs: It’s quite special for her because she’s seen me write poems and journals my whole life. So I think she absolutely loves it. I dedicated my book You Hung the Moon to her, and she was in tears when she saw it. So she’s one of my biggest supporters.
Reader’s Digest: What made you start to write poetry in the first place?
Jessica Urlichs: I’ve always written poetry. I started when I was 5. The principal at my primary school put my poem in a frame and hung it up in the foyer. That was the first time I knew I was good at it and that people felt something from [my writing]. My primary teacher actually read one of my poems at her wedding. That was really cool. So I always knew I could communicate through poetry.
Reader’s Digest: Was there a particular poet who inspired you?
Jessica Urlichs: So Hannah Finley is one of my best friends and my photographer. She’s very talented. When I was reading some of her work, I was just like, Oh my gosh, she’s so honest. This is exactly how I feel. I don’t know if I would have ever had the courage to say that. And then I started sharing.
Reader’s Digest: Let’s hear your top five poets or poetry books.
Jessica Urlichs: Top five? Oh, I don’t know! I love Kate Baer, Harry Baker, Maggie Smith, Hannah Rosenberg and Holly McNish. If I see any of their poems across my feed, I will never scroll past ever. They all speak from the heart. They’ve all got very different styles, but they all stand for something.
Reader’s Digest: No pressure, but what are you working on next?
Jessica Urlichs: I’m actually working on a guided journal so moms can write their own poetry to leave for their children. There will be a lot of questions that lead up to the poetry prompts to help set the tone. I want people to realize that anyone can write. It’s called The Years Are Short.
Reader’s Digest: What do you make of the role of poetry today, anyway? It’s basically the opposite of a flashy TikTok video.
Jessica Urlichs: I think it actually holds a really important role right now. It’s more accessible than it’s ever been, and more people have a platform to share their voices. Now, you don’t necessarily need a degree in creative writing or a formal literary background to write something meaningful; it’s just about honesty and connection. So a lot of people are turning to poetry just to make sense of so many things—not just motherhood but the world.
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