The other day, I was sitting outside and talking to one of my friends. She was telling me how she's finally decided she wanted to take the plunge and do a boudoir session. I was over the moon as I've tried to convince her to do one for years. As the conversation got deeper, she told me, "This is going to sound bad." Being the walking ball of nerves that I am, I more or less demanded she tell me what she meant immediately. She said, "You're beautiful, but your body isn't perfect." I nodded. She followed with, "Seeing these pictures you post and the amount of courage it has to take to post them...it made me think, 'wow. I could do that, too.'" To which I excitedly replied "Yes! That's the whole fucking point!"
Hi! My name is Cali, and I am a proud brand ambassador for Centerfold Boudoir.
I have struggled with every bodily insecurity you can think of. As a child and very young adult, I was in pageants and more or less fell into modeling. At this point in time, being of a curvier build was not sought after by pageant judges, designers, or photographers. I fell into a very negative head space about what the definition of "beauty" was for many years. After some pretty dramatic fluctuations in my weight, I stared into my bathroom mirror crying, hating what I saw looking back at me. Then, something my father told me as a little girl popped into my head. "Pretty is what pretty does." At that point, it all clicked. I decided I was pretty, and BAM, I was.
I decided to get back into modeling. It's something I was always decent at, and more importantly, it was something that fed my creativity. I joined some modeling groups on Facebook as to rebuild my portfolio. This is how I met Allyssa. She posted a model call and I replied. I didn't think that one photo shoot at the Great Salt Lake would turn into something as amazing as it did. I went into it with the idea of simply working with a photographer to build my portfolio, but left with a new friend and a whole different desire of what I wanted to do. As it turns out, that desire I had lined up perfectly with Allyssa's.
She and I kept in touch and bounced ideas off of each other constantly. Every time we worked together, new and bigger ideas would pop up and my confidence grew. I started posting the photos from our shoots with messages about body positivity. I began getting messages from friends saying they wanted to give it a shot. Every time I've shot with her, I've left feeling like a million bucks. Her creativity, easy going nature, and not to mention insane talent is something I am so envious of.
In the time she and I have been working together, we've accomplished some pretty amazing things. What I'm the most proud of is this group we have of amazing, beautiful, and intelligent women. Women who share the same idea that Allyssa and I have that every woman is a fucking goddess. Women who have shown up for a session nervous, and left feeling like Venus herself.
This experience has been humbling, emotionally fulfilling, and so much fucking fun. I cannot wait to see where we go from here. I implore you to give this a shot. Even once. I promise you won't regret it.
Comments