“boudoir photographers must have so much confidence because they know how to pose thieri clients, it must be so easy to pose themselves!” right?

wrong.

any boudoir photographer can probably tell you that unless they’re “the perfect shape” that society says is best (right now it’s the hourglass, in the early 2000’s, it was being flat everywhere, yadda yadda), it’s a fucking nightmare trying to do self portraits.

it’s easy for me to tell my clients to have faith in me and to let me do my magic (which isn’t magic, just posing a bit and showing you what you really look like), but it can be really hard to do ourselves.

not only does it take a lot of effort to get the camera + tripod in the right spot, but then you have to come face-to-face with the thing you hide behind most: the camera.

my camera is exceptional and it shows a lot of truth, but sometimes that truth can be hard to look at face-on.

the truth is, i’m a mid-size woman. i’m a size 14 and i’m definitely thicker in the middle than i am in the hips. my chest makes me feel very front-heavy combined with my stomach and sometimes it can be really hard to look at myself and believe everything i tell my clients.

my studio focuses on body positivity and neutrality. the truth is, you won’t always love your body. you probably won’t love your stretch marks, but you’ll love that they came from the child you brought into this world.

you probably won’t love your belly rolls, but you’ll take comfort in knowing that you’re well fed and loved by people who don’t make you feel like shit about your size.

you probably won’t love how your breasts sag, but you’ll love the fact that you were able to nourish your children from your own body.

or maybe you’re like me and haven’t brought any children into this world and struggle to find the positivity in the way your body looks because you “don’t have a good reason” to look the way you do…

well, i’m here to tell you something: you don’t need a reason. You don’t need a reason to look the way you do, or to dress the way you do, or to accept your body the way it is.

there is nowhere in this world that you don’t fit.

there is nowhere in this world that you cannot belong.

there is no one worth loving in this world who won’t love you because of your looks.

you, exactly as you are, right now, are not lesser. you’re exactly who you need to be, right now, in this moment. you don’t need to embrace toxic positivity to believe that, you just need to understand and believe that everything you are is exactly what you need.

take the selfies. take pictures with friends. buy clothes that fit you, not clothes that you fit into. eat food, drink mimosas and don’t let anyone tell you to change. you’re perfect the way you are.

xoxo, kristen.