Kildare influencer Danielle Websdale shares the story of her rise

If there’s one thing you notice the moment you speak to Danielle Websdale, it’s the energy. The Kildare-born content creator - known to her more than 50,000 followers on Instagram as dannithemammy - is part open book, part unstoppable force, and entirely rooted in the town that raised her. “I am indeed a proud Kildare woman,” she says. “I’ve lived in Newbridge all my life, apart from a seven-year stint in Australia. No matter where I’ve gone, Newbridge has always felt like home.” It’s the kind of grounding that has shaped her life, her work, and her unexpected rise as one of Ireland’s most relatable social media voices.

Danielle’s first job came long before CVs and career plans. At thirteen, she was working chip vans at concerts and football matches. “I was the cool kid who gave people the lids with their bottles,” she laughs. “A very sought-after job at the time!” It was the beginning of years spent saying yes to hard graft. Hairdressers, waitressing, retail - Danielle tried everything. “I was always happy to work and keep myself busy.” Even now, that instinct hasn’t left her. If anything, it’s the backbone of her success.

As a teenager, she imagined a very different path. “I always pictured myself as an air hostess or maybe doing something like Kathryn Thomas on No Frontiers,” she says. In a twist of fate, life circled back: today, she reviews hotels and destinations around Ireland as part of her social content. After school, she completed a PLC course and joined the HSE, where she has built a steady career. In the “little pockets of time,” as she calls them, she picked up diplomas in Psychology and Business Management, plus a Level 6 in Early Childhood Education. She still dreams of studying more, but with three small children and two jobs, time is a precious, limited resource.

Danielle has always been a natural documenter - “the girl who uploaded the digital camera photos to Bebo the morning after a night out.” But the turning point came in 2015, just as she was preparing to move to Canada. When she discovered she was pregnant, everything changed course. Instead of boarding a plane, she began sharing the messy, honest transition into motherhood. The name dannithemammy was a play on “dannithenanny,” a nickname she earned in Australia. “It started as a joke, but it stuck,” she says. What began as casual sharing grew into a lifestyle account spanning fashion, family life, travel and beauty. “It genuinely grew legs,” she says - and today, it’s her second full-time job.

If 2025 has felt big for Danielle, it’s because it has been. Brand collaborations with Cadbury, Tesco, TK Maxx, Google, Next and its4women Insurance marked a new level of recognition. “It never stops feeling surreal,” she says. She has also travelled the country reviewing family-friendly hotels, attended events, and built friendships in the industry. But her proudest personal moment? Running her first half marathon and completing a Hyrox sim - proof that even the busiest women can carve out space for themselves.

Next year is set to be defining for a different reason. Danielle will run the Dublin Marathon in memory of her late nanny, Eileen O’Brien. It’s a challenge charged with emotion and purpose - one she speaks about with sincerity and affection. “It’s something very close to my heart,” she says. To donate, the link is: https://www.idonate.ie/fundraiser/Dannithemammy

For Danielle, the greatest joy of her work is what it gives her family. “We get to experience things together that we might never have otherwise,” she says. Her online community is another source of daily happiness: “The support, kindness and humour people bring to my page - I don’t take any of it for granted.” The challenges, though, are real. Time is the biggest hurdle, especially balancing content creation with a full-time job and the needs of three children. Early mornings, late nights, and constant editing are part of the routine. And while judgement and trolling are relatively rare for her, they’re an unavoidable part of being online.

What does she wish she could tell her younger self? “That everything will be okay,” she says without hesitation. “And that I should have cared less about what people thought. If I’d had the confidence then that I have now, who knows what paths I might have taken sooner.” For anyone hoping to build a platform, her advice is simple: “Post the stupid cringy video. Be yourself. Authenticity shines through more than anything.” She rejects the myth of easy freebies. “You genuinely have to love this industry. It is hard work. Consistency, passion and resilience will carry you.”

Her philosophy for happiness is equally straightforward: balance. “Spend time with the people you love, cut out anything or anyone that doesn’t serve you, and take time for yourself,” she says. “Eat the chocolate, drink the wine - just balance it out. Life is short and tomorrow isn’t promised.” Her downtime includes running, the gym, saunas, ice baths, good food and the kind of TV that requires zero brainpower. Mostly, she cherishes time with her husband and children. “Free time is limited, but that makes it even more special.”

Despite her online confidence, Danielle insists she’s shy in person. “My voice even quivers in public,” she admits. But the biggest surprise? In 2019, she broke her back in three places in a speedboat accident in Malta. It was a frightening chapter, but also a defining one. “It shaped who I am today.” Like everything else in Danielle’s story, it became part of her momentum - propelling her into the woman, mother and creator she is now: grounded in Kildare, devoted to her family, and determined to keep sharing her life authentically, one post at a time.