Meet Smrithi Mohan, the General Counsel at Awesome
My name is Smrithi Mohan, and I am the General Counsel at Awesome, the incredible company behind your favorites: SmugMug, Flickr, and This Week in Photo. Each year on International Women’s Day, we reflect on how far we’ve come, and how much farther we have to go. This year’s theme, #AccelerateAction, is a call to do more than just acknowledge inequality. It’s about actively pushing for progress to be faster and more effective. It’s about going beyond creating awareness and advocacy, and taking real, measurable steps to drive lasting change.
The first woman I saw accelerate action
Before I understood what it meant to break barriers, I watched my mother do it.
As a newly married immigrant from India in the early 1980s, she found herself in a foreign country, surrounded by countless cultural barriers. Instead of letting those challenges define her, she redefined herself. She earned a Master’s degree in Computer Science, a field where women, especially immigrant women, were few and far between. She juggled graduate school, career ambitions, and raising two small children — all while becoming a brilliant systems engineer and business analyst. She never asked for permission to belong: she made the space for herself.
My mother’s journey proved to me that barriers aren’t meant to be accepted but to be broken. Although, I didn’t always believe I had the strength to break my own…
From fear to confidence: My own journey to self-empowerment
I was shy and reserved when I was younger. I experienced a lot of fear and uncertainty, and often felt that I didn’t belong. Growing up an awkward kid caught between cultures, I struggled with things I couldn’t understand or articulate at the time. I was bullied and picked on, and because of that, I spent much of my childhood shrinking myself to avoid drawing attention.
It took a lot of time and many years of hard lessons, but I learned to find my voice. Now, I want to do everything in my power to make sure others don’t have to struggle to find their voices alone. No one should feel like they have to prove they belong.
That’s why I’m incredibly proud of the launch of Women of Awesome (WOA): our first-ever Employee Resource Group (ERG) at Awesome.
Women of Awesome: A space for action
WOA is about taking concrete steps to ensure that women at Awesome have the mentorship, advocacy, and opportunities they need to thrive at work and at home. It’s about creating a space where women (and allies) can connect, grow, and lead without fear. WOA is about driving faster progress. It’s about ensuring that women at Awesome have the resources, training, and support they need to step into leadership roles, take bold risks, and help shape the future of our company and beyond.
At Awesome, we champion creators, innovators, and risk-takers. And we believe it’s just as important to champion the people inside our company, and to ensure that our workplace reflects the same values of empowerment and inclusion that we celebrate in our extended Awesome community.
This International Women’s Day, let’s not just talk about change. Let’s accelerate it. We talked to some of the accelerators who make up the Women of Awesome about their roles at Awesome and their own personal journeys breaking barriers. Read their stories below!
Meet some of the women that make Awesome truly Awesome
Leticia, Manager of Community, Flickr
What do you do at Awesome?
I lead a team that focuses on creating opportunities for Flickr members to share, connect, inspire, and be inspired. Our mission is to keep members engaged in our community and product.
What’s one bold action you’ve taken that helped break a barrier for yourself or others?
A key moment when I felt I broke a barrier was when a Spanish journalist invited me to share my experience on his podcast about moving from Spain to San Francisco as a young adult and transitioning to working in a tech company, even though my background is in journalism. At first, I doubted whether my story mattered, but I realized that talking about my challenges with cultural shifts and career changes could inspire others in similar situations to pursue their goals.
Abby, Senior Customer Support Manager, Flickr
What do you do at Awesome?
I lead the amazing Flickr Customer Support team and help the team deliver 24/7 world-class support, thrilling our customers along the way.
What’s one bold action you’ve taken that helped break a barrier for yourself or others?
Training and completing the New York City Marathon in 2018. I’m not your typical runner (short legs, slow, chubby) and pretty indoorsy! But after training for 16 weeks, running the five boroughs and finally crossing the finish to get my medal, I knew I could accomplish anything!
Rochell Lopez, Executive Assistant, Awesome
What do you do at Awesome?
I’m the Executive Assistant to the Superfriends. In my role, I juggle priorities for nine execs and several directors across SmugMug + Flickr. I handle all forms of travel for the execs to make sure they get to where they need to be and as seamlessly as possible. I plan and implement meaningful opportunities across teams to collaborate and socialize both virtual and in person via summits and offsites and ensure everything runs smoothly and on track.
What’s one bold action you’ve taken that helped break a barrier for yourself or others?
For seven years, I lived alone. My space was mine — quiet mornings with coffee, weekends that stretched out just for me, and a life I built with my own hands. I knew who I was in that world: independent, capable, and self-sufficient. And then, life offered me a door I never expected. A man I loved — and with him, a ready-made family. Kids. Chaos. A house already full of routines I didn’t create. It would have been easy to say no, to stay in the life I understood. But something in me said leap. So I did.
I stepped into a ready-made family and shattered the myth that independent women can’t thrive in blended families. I redefined what strength looks like — not as control, but connection. Not knowing all the answers, but showing up anyway. It wasn’t easy. At times I questioned if I was losing myself. But somewhere in the mess, I found a version of me I didn’t know existed — softer, braver, and willing to love in ways I never had to before. That leap into the unknown became my boldest act of courage — and it rewrote my definition of strength forever.
Monty, Senior People Partner, Awesome
What do you do at Awesome?
I’m a people-champion who brings heart and strategy together, empowering teams and leaders to thrive while making work a place where everyone feels valued, supported, and inspired to achieve their best.
What’s one bold action you’ve taken that helped break a barrier for yourself or others?
One bold action I’ve taken to break barriers is ensuring that the right voices are heard in the moments that matter. Throughout my career, I’ve worked to create space for people, especially those who may not naturally advocate for themselves. I have worked to help them be properly recognized, valued, and supported in their growth. Advocating for fairness and accountability isn’t always easy, it means having tough conversations, questioning norms, and sometimes being the only person willing to push back. But those moments have strengthened my resolve to influence at different levels, build trust, and lead with both impact and empathy. Over time, I’ve seen how a single conversation or act of advocacy can shift a person’s trajectory and create lasting change. Breaking barriers isn’t always about one big moment, it’s about consistently showing up, asking hard questions, and making sure progress doesn’t get sidelined. By making that a priority, I’ve not only helped others grow but have also deepened my ability to drive meaningful change.
Lu, Graphic Designer, Awesome
What do you do at Awesome?
Make things pretty and delightful, I hope.
What’s one bold action you’ve taken that helped break a barrier for yourself or others?
Honestly, I just never stopped being true to myself. There were constantly voices (real or imagined) telling me that I should change or do this or that, but I’ve always stubbornly believed in myself and I never gave in. I actually joined an all-boys baseball team when I was 8 years old just because I felt like it. I wasn’t very good at it but it felt great to assert myself and inspire other female classmates to try it.
I didn’t get the opportunity to go to art school, but I always knew it was my dream to become a designer, so I did it my own way. I’m completely self-taught, so it’s crazy that I somehow ended up working for what I genuinely believe is one of the best companies in the world. I’m approaching the stage in my career where I get asked by younger peers, “How did you do this, how can I get there?”, and it feels really amazing to encourage them to be themselves and find their own way, too.
#AccelerateAction #IWD2025 #WomenOfAwesome #WOA
Thanks for celebrating the women of Awesome with us! And remember: supporting women in the workplace isn’t about politics, it’s about people. When we invest in people, we build stronger companies, stronger industries, and stronger futures. Let’s break barriers together.