When it comes to cars, Jana Askeland knows what women want. She’s the founder of Real Mom Car Reviews, an online platform where she reviews new vehicles from her perspective as a woman, mom, and lifelong car enthusiast. Honing in on the features that we tend to care about most — like safety, space, and comfort — Askeland gives an unbiased take on a car’s pros and cons, then shares her videos with a growing fanbase (and the occasional hater) on social media channels.
More pointedly, Jana makes an intimidating purchase less so. With her mix of informative and “mom life” content, she’s a relatable, trustworthy voice in an industry that seems to spend most of its marketing budget on the male customer, despite the fact that women influence more than 85 percent of all car purchases.
In this episode of the Motherly Podcast, Askeland sits down with Liz Tenety to chat about car seats, inviting women car buyers into the conversation, and why she takes internet bullying with a grain of salt.
Meet the expert
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Jana Askeland is the content creator behind the website Real Mom Car Tours, which she founded in 2022. Through her website and social channels — YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram — Jana shares video reviews of new vehicles through the female lens. Her honest reviews help connect moms to the best car for their family’s season of life, from babyhood to the teen years and beyond. A mother of two sons, Askeland lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, and holds a B.A. in Mass Communications from NC State University.
Liz Tenety: You grew up with a parent in the car business. What was that like?
Jana Askeland: My parents were divorced when I was little, and my dad was in the car business. When I would go visit him during the summer or the weekends, he would haul me with him to the used car lot or to auto auctions. He would have me detailing cars with Q-tips and newspapers and that sort of thing. But I was embarrassed, because other people’s parents were doctors and lawyers and all this cool stuff, and mine was into cars, and at that point, cars were not cool.
Liz Tenety: How did that impact your career trajectory and inspire your platform?
Jana Askeland: When I went to college for broadcasting, I gravitated to selling advertising to car dealers because it’s a tricky, tough industry. But those guys felt like home to me. I wasn’t afraid to go work with these folks. And so when you’re in dealerships, I guess as an adjacency, people think you’re very knowledgeable in that arena, so I would get a lot of questions, 100% of the time from women, like, “What should I buy?” And so I thought, “Maybe I should start talking about it on a larger scale, even if it only reaches a couple people.”
Liz Tenety: Part of the reason that you started your YouTube channel was because the car industry was catering to men. And yet, it seems like we’re doing all the driving out here.
Jana Askeland: It’s really frustrating. It’s always been a male-dominated industry, from the automaker down to the auto dealer. And I think talking about cars is seen as a really masculine thing, so women don’t necessarily feel invited to be in that conversation.
Liz Tenety: Talk about the point of view that you’re bringing to your reviews.
Jana Askeland: I’ve learned that what works for your family may not work for mine, and that doesn’t mean that it’s a bad car. So I don’t focus on the negative. I focus on the positive things that can work for people.
Liz Tenety: You’ve had to let go of caring about what other people think and say. It’s such an intimidating part of being a content creator. How did you learn to process that?
Jana Askeland: [It depends] on the platform. YouTube, for example, is very male-dominated, and they’ll say stuff like, “Who let her out of the kitchen?” You take it all with a grain of salt. Obviously, the things that are about appearance, they sting for a second, but at the end of the day, I can’t control it. I don’t delete any of those comments because I think that gives it too much energy. I keep it moving. Because 90% are positive, I can’t let that 10% bring me down.
Liz Tenety: What are some features moms should look for when car-buying?
Jana Askeland: I like to make sure that you have the latest safety features. You need to make sure that you’ve looked into things like side impact safety because if the side of the car is hit, it could be the side that you have a car seat in. So those things are really great to look into, not just forward collision and that sort of thing, but you have to think about where the child is and what stage the child’s at.
Liz Tenety: What about where you put the car seat? Any guidance on where the best place is, especially when you have that first child?
Jana Askeland: I think in the middle of a bench seat or in the passenger seat behind you. When my kids were little, I loved a bench seat. Now that they’re older, I love the captain’s chairs in the back, because we need a little bit of separation. And when I’m carpooling, when I’m taking all the friends to soccer or wherever, I like them to walk right between those seats to get to the third row. So for me in this season of life, I go captain’s chairs in the second row. It just seems much easier.
Liz Tenety: Talk about that moment when you do feel like you can’t fit your growing family into your current car. What do you advise people at that stage?
Jana Askeland: That’s so tough because the answer usually is get a minivan but so many people are resistant to the minivan. But still, it’s an extension of your identity, and a lot of people just will not bite the bullet. So I recommend test driving as many as you can because even in the minivan space or the big SUV space, they all feel different to drive.
Liz Tenety: For families with teenage drivers, what do you recommend they look for?
Jana Askeland: Some manufacturers are way ahead of the curve. You can put things in, like a geography of how far they can go, and you can get speed alerts or put a governor on the speed in some cases. So I for sure would have to spring for technology and a defensive driving class.
Liz Tenety: Is there some future car, when you’re in your empty nest years, that you personally dream of?
Jana Askeland: There are some really gorgeous ones; the ones that are the pipe dream — the Lamborghinis and the Ferraris, and they look so cool. I think I would be ridiculous looking trying to get in and out of one and trying to figure out how to get it in gear. I think I would eventually downsize, but not into a little car. I think once you get used to riding in an SUV and riding up higher, I don’t know if I could ever give that up.
Liz Tenety: What has surprised you most about being a mother?
Jana Askeland: The fact that I even had children surprised me the most. I never wanted kids. I never envisioned being a mom. My best friend in the world had a baby, so I went to go help, and I nuzzled into that little downy head, and my womb burst into flames. And I came back home, and I said [to my husband], “We have to have a baby.”
Liz Tenety: I wonder if before that moment that you thought that motherhood was going to be the end of who you were and the life that you wanted to have.
Jana Askeland: Absolutely. I think I saw it as giving up my identity, giving up my freedom, giving up my opportunities. I think I’ve had to learn that the way I mother doesn’t have to be the way you mother, and that’s fine. We stay in our lane, and we do what works for our family. And so when I let go of that control piece, it got easier.
Liz Tenety: Now, you have two sons, who are 9 and 11. How would you describe how you’ve learned to integrate this free-spirited self with having a family and a really busy life?
Jana Askeland: I try to do freedom within a framework. I offer them as much freedom as I can while keeping them safe in all the constraints of everyday life. I have to dig deep on all the things that are required to keep them orderly and successful in their path, but also be true to who I am, which is not military precision. I don’t operate that way.
Liz Tenety: How would you describe your day-to-day life with your sons and your work?
Jana Askeland: It’s gotten really busy. This age is so fun. We have great conversations, but they’re still small enough that they will just let me hug them and squeeze them and kiss them on the cheeks. But, I review cars. That is my full-time gig, and I try to look at cars from a mom’s perspective. And while I’m creating content, I try to do it from that point of view, and I love to have the kids in the video passively, where you can see them, or actively — I’ll try to give them some lines to say or something like that.
Liz Tenety: At Motherly, we believe that motherhood brings out our superpowers. What do you see as yours?
Jana Askeland: Flexibility. Being able to roll with the punches and knowing that this too will pass, but in this moment, I need to pivot and I need to help them pivot because sometimes we need a reset. So I think my ability to be able to let go of the expectation and be flexible and try something maybe that they wanted to do – it doesn’t cause me the stress and the anxiety like it may a lot of people.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. Listen to the full conversation on The Motherly Podcast.
