My wonderful friend and SG Staff Photographer @shotbyash mentioned earlier today how apropos it is that this set came out on International Women’s Day.
I couldn't agree with her more. This collaboration between @frankndame and myself is all about unapologetic womanhood.
For me, that's what International Woman's Day and Suicide Girls are all about. @missy and @sean created this incredible space that has helped innumerable women love themselves more. Thousands of us have found confidantes, mentors, aspirational figures and lifelong friends. This website has played a huge role in me becoming more confident in myself as a woman, thanks to the dozens of thousands of women I've now seen proudly posing naked and showing off their incredible bodies. Women of all faiths, lifestyles, shapes, sizes, colours, and representing every part of the LGBTQI+ spectrum. Seeing these women, and loving these women, has helped me love myself exactly as I am.
Still, after having a baby I was scared. My body changed a lot, and this new body was hard to get used to. This new life is hard to get used to, as wondrous as it is. But what would everyone think? Would people draw negative comparisons between my last set and this one? Would people think I'm lazy or unappealing, as I haven't 'bounced back' as so many women seem to do?
So around three months after giving birth to a beautiful boy, I decided to become the woman I wanted to see after having a child. We shot New Life and we left it totally unretouched. There's no hiding here. No photoshop, and no posing to hide the many changes to my body - the stretch marks, the extra fat, the cellulite, the darker pigmentation. It's all here.
And none of those things are bad. They're part of me. Part of my body. And this set shows it all off proudly, without pause and without apology. Our bodies are strong, and beautiful. Our bodies have purpose and power. Whether you are a mother or not. Regardless of colour. Cisgender, of trans experience or non binary. Thin or fat, muscular or soft, short or tall. You are beautiful, you are worthy, you are powerful. Happy International Women’s Day.
