Comox Women are…

About a month ago, a post celebrating self-love was circulated on Facebook by New Jersey photographer Jess Fielder. She included this quote by author Erin McKean:

“You Don’t Have to Be Pretty. You don’t owe prettiness to anyone. Not to your boyfriend/spouse/partner, not to your co-workers, especially not to random men on the street. You don’t owe it to your mother. You don’t owe it to your children. You don’t owe it to civilization in general. Prettiness is not a rent you pay for occupying a space marked female.”

The project and the quote struck a chord with me, and many others. I received an email asking if I would consider doing a similar project. A few weeks later, I found myself on a Comox Valley beach with a group of brave and enthusiastic women, many of us meeting for the first time. We ate chocolate, drank some wine, and made two signs each. One, a false self-definition we carry or something negative someone said to us. The other, a statement we know to be true of ourselves. There were tears and laughter, tons of it.

When we left, we were stronger. We were connected and inspired. We were a little angry, at the things we should be angry about, and a little more full of love; self-love and love for the power of sisterhood and strength in sharing.

I bow down to the women who joined me. Being able to capture your honesty was very powerful, and seeing you leave walking taller and light with laughter was a highlight of my summer. We did this shoot for us, but additionally, if just one teen girl sees these photos, and gains from seeing that this is what real women look like, or if one woman now feels less alone in their insecurity, we have done a good thing here.