(Including before and after pics)
Believe in yourself. Rather easier said than done. I have struggled with self-esteem especially related to body image and my looks for as long as I can remember.
I know it will be hard for many people to believe as I appear bubbly and outgoing but for much of my life I have avoided mirrors and weighing scales. I reached rock bottom in terms of self-esteem about five years ago. My marriage was crumbling, my weight was ballooning and I got to a point where make-up was something that gathered dust in the cupboard.
I remember going to a family function and making a real effort with lots of eye make-up including liquid liner. My eyes were just not used to it. One eye started watering and then I managed to poke myself in the eye with the mascara wand on the other and had to start again.
When I was putting this post together I decided to be brave and include a photo from this time of my life. I couldn’t find one. I had such a negative belief in how I looked that I had gone through Facebook and untagged any image of me – just to make sure that nothing ‘ugly’ popped up.
I am extremely grateful for the wonderful people around me who have supported me over the last while. I have worked hard to reach where I am now. I have fallen in love with make-up again and I honestly believe that we all deserve to look good. And, more importantly we all deserve to feel fabulous.
I met Natalie Greer at an ITWBN blogger event a year ago. Natalie is a photographer and we got talking about boudoir shoots (you now the sexy ones). It got me thinking about how confident you would need to be to do something like that.
The more I thought about it the more I felt that every woman deserves to feel truly special and in my head being a model for a day would be something special. True beauty and fabulousness comes from within, I know. However in the society we live it so much pressure is placed on body image and looks that it is important to feel good about yourself.
For some people this might be creating something, or doing something for a good cause, but for me it included looking good, and more importantly feeling good about myself.
Something new and exciting is happening …
I am also embarking on something new in the career line where I will be combining my experience with some new training to offer personal branding services – something that I really believe in. The more I researched this, I realised that we are a brand ourselves and our image – photo – is part of this brand.
I felt both brave and excited the morning of the shoot. I had a little suitcase packed with a couple of outfits and accessories and of course my bulging make-up bag. As I was driving I looked down at my hands and panicked. My nails are in a dreadful state. Due to conditions like pernicious anaemia and arthritis and the drugs I need to take, my nails are brittle, ridged and in some cases very short.
I quickly pulled into a pharmacy and bought myself a packet of stick on nails. Now I was ready for my photo shoot.
Thank you to Natalie, for making it so special, and to everyone who has already liked the profile pic on Facebook. I love the image with me wearing my crown – it reminds me of where all this started. My first really well read blog post was all about wearing your invisible crown.
Thanks so much for reading this and for looking at my photos. I really do appreciate the feedback.
I am working on a blog post about personal branding which will include a free downloadable personal branding questionnaire. So please check back in or subscribe to the blog so you don’t miss it!
Thank you again for your support on my journey.
Kerry x
