Finding Your Beauty through Boudoir

Back in 2010 Jessica Simpson had a documentary series on VH1 called “The Price of Beauty”.  In this series, Simpson travelled to different countries around the globe to explore and define what beauty means to different people in various cultures. She did this through exploring different beauty and fashion trends, and the culture of beauty in each country.  In some cultures being heavier was beautiful, in others it was having an elongated neck. One particular woman had burned her skin trying to lighten it to become her culture’s idea of “beauty”.  We all want to feel beautiful, but at what cost? We shouldn’t be changing things to fit a certain model, instead change only what makes you feel better about you! 


Often, youth is thought to be the big identifying factor of beauty.  If we look at skincare lines, they are often marketed to bring back youthful skin. It often seems. as women, that we are constantly trying to get back to that fountain of youth.  I fully admit to doing this as well.  I analyze the way my face has changed, the lines that seem to have appeared overnight, the way my breasts are not as firm as they once were.  But why is it that these physical changes typically have a negative connotation? 


Youth is beautiful, but so is aging. Age is nothing but a number.  In my experience of having the privilege to photograph so many beautiful women and from so many different walks of life, I have found that sometimes women feel they are too old to do boudoir. This, my friends, is exactly why you should do it!!!  Boudoir is not just for the young twenty somethings (although they should do it too!), but for women from all walks and ages of life.  


Experience and challenges make us who we are.  There is beauty in documenting our visual stories and the way our bodies change over the years. Your body may not look exactly the way it did ten, fifteen, twenty, thirty years ago…but it isn’t supposed to. Fine lines, wrinkles, sunspots, c-section scars they tell the journey of our life story and there is beauty in that.  


Ironically, the reason that Jessica Simpson decided to do this documentary was because, at the time, she had received a lot of negative press for gaining ten pounds.  All of a sudden the media was tearing her apart and saying that she was extremely overweight.  She decided  to take control of the situation and use this series as an opportunity to gain confidence.  The end result was her realizing that there is not one type of beautiful.  What is most beautiful is a confident woman who makes her own choices and decides to embrace herself, with the imperfections that make her different from everyone else.  

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Boudoir is an opportunity to look at yourself in photographs and decide that you like what you see.  To decide that you are your own kind of beautiful.  Document your history, your story, and the powerfully beautiful woman that you are!