I have been a big girl for many years. It rarely seems to matter in my world. I live a rich beautiful life full of love, success and happiness. Yes, it would be fun to be smaller and healthier, but I have never let this body stop me from doing anything and everything I wanted to do and be.
I really like this ad campaign if for no other reason it shows us that the body is only a shell for all the magic, passion and life that we are destined to be.
If life teaches us nothing, it is that culture defines beauty. Similarly, as culture evolves and changes, so does what it considers beauty.
I love this video for it so eloquently illustrates this very fact.
When all is said and done, define beauty for yourself. Be your most beautiful on your own terms and never apologize. For that, is what is most beautiful and what I most love to photograph!
It isn't uncommon for the question to be asked in each session "Can you fix ______?".
With the advancement of Photoshop, we can do just about anything. However, the question should always be asked "Just because we can, should we?" I always want my clients to look their best and I love this video as it shows why less is often more.
Aspire to be yourself! Look your best, but look like YOU!
Colbie Caillat recently released her song 'Try' that talks about today's beauty standards. In her music video Colbie takes a stance against Photoshop. She starts off the video looking fully made over and then proceeds to un-Photoshop herself, ending the song as her natural, unedited self, alongside a wonderfully diverse set of women, who undergo the same transition.
See their incredible transformation from start to finish and the beauty they maintain no matter what they wear, or don't wear, on their face! Please watch this amazing video.....and then tell yourself that you are beautiful!
Wonderful lyrics!
Put your make-up on
Get your nails done
Curl your hair
Run the extra mile
Keep it slim so they like you, do they like you?
Get your sexy on
Don't be shy, girl
Take it off
This is what you want, to belong, so they like you
Do you like you?
You don't have to try so hard
You don't have to, give it all away
You just have to get up, get up, get up, get up
You don't have to change a single thing
You don't have to try, try, try, try
You don't have to try, try, try, try
You don't have to try, try, try, try
You don't have to try
Yooou don't have to try
Oooh
Oooh
Get your shopping on, at the mall, max your credit cards
You don't have to choose, buy it all, so they like you
Do they like you?
Wait a second,
Why, should you care, what they think of you
When you're all alone, by yourself, do you like you?
Do you like you?
You don't have to try so hard
You don't have to, give it all away
You just have to get up, get up, get up, get up
You don't have to change a single thing
You don't have to try so hard
You don't have to bend until you break
You just have to get up, get up, get up, get up
You don't have to change a single thing
You don't have to try, try, try, try
You don't have to try, try, try, try
You don't have to try, try, try, try
You don't have to try
You don't have to try, try, try, try
You don't have to try, try, try, try
You don't have to try, try, try, try
You don't have to try
Yooou don't have to try
Oooh
Oooh
You don't have to try so hard
You don't have to, give it all away
You just have to get up, get up, get up, get up
You don't have to change a single thing
You don't have to try, try, try, try
You don't have to try, try, try, try
You don't have to try
You don't have to try
Take your make-up off
Let your hair down
Take a breath
Look into the mirror, at yourself
Don't you like you?
Cause I like you
Sometimes, it takes a stranger to open your eyes to your own beauty.
This is a wonderful campaign by Dove and something that gives me pause in my own perception of self. I wonder how my own self perception differs from that of how others see me.