This is the story of my boudy beginnings and my attempt to influence the world, one woman at a time. (Also, be warned, there's nudity and quite a bit of passionate swearing ahead, so enjoy the message below, but then click away if you want no part of that)
'Twas the year 2014 when I embarked upon a journey that would forever change and shape my life, career, and focus of passion. For a long time it bothered me listening to women say "I need to have Kim Kardashian's ass" or "I need Cara Delvigne's eyebrows" or "I wish I had her body" OR WORSE YET: " I wish I had the body for xxxxxx." I am not saying I have never said these things, because I am pretty certain that it is a fact that 93% of your twenties is spent on not knowing what is the right way to do or be anything, but the problem with this mentality is that we are searching for the "perfect body type."
So, one day I was perusing a Cosmo magazine (which I never read anymore because it's filled with a lot of mindless drivel that does women more harm than good, tbh) there was a survey they had done where they interview men and I think the title was something ridiculous like "What Body Type Men REALLY Prefer" or some shit like that and I read it because God knows, every woman needs to know what SHE can do (contort, change, improve, shave, etc.) to land the "perfect" man (please note my extreme use of sarcasm). Anywho, the results of the survey were so diverse that you wouldn't really know what to do if you DID want to try to land a "perfect" man. It was like 13% of men surveyed like big boobs, 24% of men like women with a big butt, 21% of men like a woman with a sense of humor, or some horse shit like that. The percentages were not high enough for you to say "ALL MEN LIKE XXXX." So, that got me thinking....why do we, as women, feel the need to fit into a particular shape and size? Because, clearly, it's not because of something our men want. (Also, just stop trying to do shit to please men....be yourself and your person will find you.)
So, after reading that information and thinking about it over some time, I decided to throw together a project to prove my hypothesis right: that there is not 1 set "body type" and that we all should stop trying to achieve something that is not us. So, I did what most people did in the year of 2014, I took to the ever loving Facebook and posted a casting call on my page asking women to come forth and wear as much or as little clothing as they wanted, but the trick was, they had to let me photograph them with no Photoshop. They would be a 100% authentic representation of their babeliness. I thought maybe I'd get 20 people. I received emails and messages upon messages from over 75 women in both Winnipeg and Regina and over the course of the month of September in 2014, I had the pleasure of photographing each of these babes for like 5 minutes each to get 1 shot that told their story the best!
Every woman that came in had a different reason for wanting to be part of my Body Celebration Project and I loved hearing their stories, but what really changed the focus of my life, was the emails that came AFTER they had their little photo sessions.
I received countless FB messages and emails with words of confidence and excitement that they had done something so incredibly empowering. That was when I realized that if I could do that in 5 minutes, imagine what I could do with a half day or a full day with women! How much further along their journey to self love and appreciation would they be if they came to see themselves in a totally new and accepting way.
Now, these days, body positivity is all the rage and I think that is absolutely phenomenal because it means our voices are getting louder and fashion agencies, marketers, and the media are getting on board with the fact that, hey, all bodies ARE different and all bodies ARE beautiful, but we still have a long way to go. The women that came in for this project probably had no idea that they were going to change the course of MY life so drastically. After September, I ditched everything else that I normally shot (weddings, portraits, families, etc.) and focused my mission on empowering women as much as I could in whatever format I could, whether it be through speaking, writing, photography, philanthropy and just general silliness.
But, this isn't about me. This is about women coming together to celebrate their bodies. One of the questions I asked during their 5 minute session was "What is your least favorite body part?" and women responded with about 5 answers in less than a second. Then I would ask "What is your favorite body part?" and they would stop and have to think about it before answering with something like: eyes, lips, hair, face. Most women (of all the different sizes) were not a fan of their tummies. So, I asked them to show their tummy some love, because it is a part of them (and to be honest, without your tummy you would be at least a foot shorter). The funny thing about the human body, though, is that it is going to change, evolve, grow, shrink, move, contort, get scarred, get hurt, and so forth continually throughout life. So, maybe we should just be thankful for the stage that our bodies are at right now because they are moving us from point A to point B and letting us go about our lives and do our earth work.
It's interesting because we tell ourselves over and over not to compare ourselves to other women, but in order to showcase the reason why we SHOULDN'T compare ourselves, I had to compare all these images together by putting them into one large print. (Let's just say it's for science.) The thing is, the grass is always greener, my friends. You will always want the thing you cannot have and maybe that is part of the journey. I had to come to the dire fact that I am not meant to have pastel hair...if I was, I would have been born blond and patient. So, I shall rock this brunette like it's going out of style.
Women influencing and empowering women is really important to the world and it happens so far and so fast that if we stop focusing on the little bits of ourselves that we deem "undesireable" because 1 person said something to us 15 years ago, we would be able to take the world by storm. Let. That. Shit. Go. YOU are what's important. Your HEALTH (mental and physical) is what's important. Stop trying to become someone or something other than yourself because you were designed to be beautiful and magnificent and spectacular. Below is one of my favorite images found on Pinterest because it is true (I am not sure of the artist):
So, instead of saying "I need to look like {insert celebrity or non-celebrity name here}" start to look deeper into yourself and ask "Why do I think that? What will achieving those lips, those eyes, those bewbs, etc. change so drastically in my life?" Look at all those babely babes above, not a single one of them looks exactly the same but they all looking so damn beautiful and happy. And remember: All bodies are beautiful but beautiful bodies aren't everything. So, yah, fuck the body standard and remember that one woman's beauty has absolutely fuck all to do with your own.