and in the beginning

I have been thinking about starting a blog for woman about the experience of being a woman for a long time. Since I have gotten into photography it has been interesting to me to be able to connect with other woman and also have the unique experience of hearing all the things woman feel less than good about themselves. It is so common for me to hear "can you fix this" before I ever even pull out my camera to start photographing, and that's if she works up enough courage to even be photographed in the first place.  I am a Photography major, a woman's study minor and a feminist and It was my goal when starting this blog to spread body positive information while starting a community for woman to connect with other woman.

My goal is to be the magician that tells her secrets. As a photographer I know how easily images can lie, and in today's world woman starve and cry to look like woman on magazine covers when because of post processing and Photoshop those models don't even look like that in real life.  The standard for beauty has seen set to unrealistic expectations  and so many of us are left not feeling like we can ever measure up. I changed my life to take my first digital class and see how incredibly easy it was to remove any trace of 'flaws'. I begin to look at my own body differently and it has been a huge encouragement to me to see that with a little skin softening and liquify tool, anyone can be' beautiful'.

but like any good feminist I know looks aren't the only thing  a woman has to offer this is why my hope is to write in this daily- or as much as possible. I want to include an interview by a woman  each month so that other women can share her career and life. Also Topics on feminism, body image, self esteem, sex,  woman artist, a day of the week devoted to things that I like or feel are encouraging.  Photography, fashion ideas, book recommendations,  food ideas, and I also wanted to have guest bloggers.

So this is the beginning of this endeavor to spread some love to my friends who are women. Jasmine Star a wedding photographer and blogger says "dare to fail"  and this blog may turn into an epic failure but I think my goal and the heart of why I wanted to do this is just to create a space for positivity and woman encouragement.  so that on days when any of us feel too much or not enough we can get a little boost of sisterhood and self love from this little corner of the internet.

It has become so common for us to hate our bodies that talks of "diets" and being "fat" are conversations girls in trainings bras are having with their friends.  what would it look like if we didn't allow that way of thinking in our lives?  If we loved our bodies enough to be healthy but we weren't concerned with being a specific size? What if instead of diets and self loathing we shared compliments and encouragement? what if instead of worrying about  "looking" like  a certain type of woman, we "did" the things we wanted to, like start bands, paint masterpieces, start businesses, go back to school, were the kind of mothers we wanted to be  and allowed ourselves to do what makes us happy?

I saw a movie with Sandra bullock a long time ago and a line from it stuck with me despite not remembering anything else about the movie "Don't be someone's slogan when you are poetry"

here's to realizing- we are poetry.