In Her Words – Miranda

I have always had self confidence issues, always thought I was  fat, unattractive, unwanted and unworthy. I feel like most women feel this way. And unfortunately I think most women have the same story of sexual abuse as a child and not having good men in their life. All the men in my younger life that should’ve protected me, didn’t. Which had me questioning my worth. Even up until my most recent divorce, I felt unwanted and not good enough for this man that wasn’t up to my own standards. Weight gain, stressing about taking care of him and my kids and the house along with trying to excel in school and work became exhausting and you forget to take care of yourself. One complaint my ex-husband had was that I didn’t love myself, I didn’t have time to find the love for myself. With my new freedom I thought it was time to put myself first for the first time in my life. I started doing things for myself that I have always wanted to do but would have felt selfish doing them over things for family. I got back in the gym, lost weight, I still don’t necessarily look in the mirror and say “damn you look good girl” even after 50lbs lost. I wanted to look at a picture of myself and not say “ew”. I spoke with an old coworker that used you guys for a 40th birthday shoot for herself and raved about you guys, after I told her it was something I was thinking about doing. I was determined to do things that were out of my comfort zone and this type of photo shoot or a photo shoot in general is way out of my comfort zone. I followed your social media and saw your work and was amazed by the quality. Once I requested information, I received a response quickly. I saw the prices and immediately thought should I even do this, and then I thought well I am priceless, anything I can do to love myself is priceless, so I decided it was worth it. Every time I thought about the day of the shoot I was nauseous, thinking of having all my insecurities out in the open for strangers to look at just made me sick to my stomach. The morning of the shoot, I felt so sick until I arrived. When I walked in yall greeted me like I was someone you had known for years and we were picking up right where we left off. All the nauseousness and nerves left me. I had fun, y’all made me feel confident and beautiful. I didn’t recognize myself and have never looked at a picture of me and liked what I saw. I saw several pictures of me that I loved and it was so difficult to pick my favorites. It didn’t fix my self esteem immediately but it is helping me to fix it for good. 

Thank you,

Miranda Vines