(Many more photos below text)

Today is my 35th birthday, but more important, to me at least, is the celebration of the one year anniversary completion of my Kickstarter Campaign for my book which launched me into an unexpected euphoria of blessed attention and a slightly frantic Body Positive Stardom. Because I took some images of myself nude and 50lbs heavier than I had ever been in my life, breastfeeding my 5 week old perfect baby boy as an attempt to redefine what beautiful means to me. And because I then proceeded to photographed over a 100 women who reached out to me wishing to redefine our concept of what is gorgeous, celebrating the skin that we are are in, I became the body love expert for a spell, a particular memorable moment was the BBC calling me up for my thoughts on Kate Middleton's post birth body. This surprising attention I most definitely adored but was not fully prepared to receive. But I did my best receiving that incredible blessing of some amazing global press, love and hate emails from strangers all over the planet, raising my toddler and yes, photographing, completing and publishing my first ever book. Today I write these words from a rustic cabin in the very secluded mountains of northern New Mexico at about 10,000 feet with very slow satellite internet connection and my toddler playing at my feet with two toy airplanes I bought him as a gift that he likes to call helicopters. This is my first "time off" besides a few Sundays here and there since this radical ride I have been on over the last year. I have had some time to reflect about what I have learned in the last year and I wanted to share it with you, the gorgeous folks who have made my dreams come true.

10 Things I Have Learned About Calling Everyone Beautiful and The Body Positive Movement In One Year

1. Feeling beautiful about one's precious self can dramatically improve one's successes in life.

This I know from experience. Now that I no longer waste hours and hours a day hating myself and my reflection in the mirror, I have so much more time to do really awesome things like empower women through a simple gorgeous photograph. I still have days of wishing I fit into my old jeans and I wonder where my jaw line has disappeared to, but those thoughts no longer paralyze me and I still feel worthy of calling myself beautiful which makes me walk with more self-confidence and love.

2. When we share vulnerability, it inspires a whole lot of healing for people and helps heal our own wounds of not feeling beautiful enough, smart enough, lovable enough, successful enough.

When I shared a photo of myself with dark circles under my eyes and rolls and cellulite and (gasp!) called it beautiful, I was sharing a vulnerability that thousands of other women unknowingly to me were yearning to see, to feel that empowering human desire known as: a sense of belonging. The images we are dominated with are almost ALL photo-shopped to make a rendition of what the beautiful model looks like. We have been trained to think that people in magazines don;t have pores and wrinkles and cellulite. They do, and it's beautiful.

3. Anyone who wishes to feel and be called beautiful damn well deserves to be called and feel BEAUTIFUL!

Obvious to me and most of you I am sure, but you all would not believe some of the emails I receive and the articles people send me going on and on about how not everyone is beautiful just like 'not everyone can climb Mount Everest.' Sure, there are some cruel people on this planet who I hope I never meet who I probably would not jump to call beautiful. But all, yes ALL of the people I have ever met and who I photograph are and will always be BEAUTIFUL if they so wish to be. And people with things like tumors and arms and legs missing and cancer patients and mothers with gorgeous birth stripes are nothing but irreplaceably beautiful and precious.

4. Photographing diverse body types of gorgeous people does not equal promoting obesity.

I have learned this year that yet another way people discriminate and shame fat people is to call them unhealthy. Here is the truth: the ONLY thing that is unhealthy on this planet is unkindness. Think about it, all of the truly dangerous things on this planet that are a threat to our health came about from a need to be more kind. If you are worried about someone you don't know or do know's health, give them a hug and some wild harvested flowers instead of telling them that they shouldn't celebrate the beautiful skin that they are in today. Tell them they are worthy and precious. I promise that will be much more healthy then blaming them for being unhealthy.

5. Photographing women nude in the name of celebrating and helping women feel empowered in the skin we are in does not equal objectifying women.

This feedback that my project and my book are yet another way to 'objectify women' has really hurt me in the deepest parts of my soul because objectifying women is something I am not and never will be friends with. However, this feedback has pushed me to do some deep reflection on the work that I do and how I offer it to the world. Do I think that there is primarily bare and nude women everywhere in the name of selling something and do I thing this is objectifying? Oh heck yes I do! I mean, how many scantly dressed or nude men do we see in the name of selling a car? (If you are watching the World Cup like I am, you prob have noticed the commercials in question). I am NOT DOWN for objectifying women and nor do I think all women should share nude images of themselves in my book or elsewhere to celebrate our beautiful vulnerabilities. I honor my sisters wearing their sacred burkas just like I honor my own self getting nude to show you that I am like you: perfectly human and in no need of photoshopping out my God-given cellulite!

6. ALL bodies yes ALL bodies are gorgeous and worthy of being photographed and loved whether that body be covered or nude.

It's just the plain ol' truth.

7. Being impeccable with my words has helped me feel beautiful for the first time since I was 10 years old.

I no longer say/use negative words out loud. Sure I still battle with internal "you are not worthy" dialogue that I then practice shining love on. I do not, however, use negative words about myself aloud. Not in front of my toddler, not in front of my mother or sister or friends. When someone says, "Jade, you look so beautiful today!" I say thank you and smile and force my old habit of wanting to reply, "Oh no I look like crap today" away and let the compliment nourish my soul. I also use my words with kindness to deliver honest compliments and words of support to people I randomly meet and with my friends and family alike. The less we put ourselves down, the less our children will do it. Plain and simple. PLEASE, if nothing else take away this simple practice form this post: Be free from saying you look ugly/too fat/too thin/too unstylish/old/worthless in front of your precious children. Practice loving yourself in entirety so that our little ones can learn to love themselves!

8. I no longer believe in the "I will be happy when... I am thinner/bigger breasted/ less pimply/un-wrinkly/have better hair and more money."

Life is shot and a dear friend my age just told me an hour ago she has terminal cancer. I want to in-joy my precious self today, not in some pre-determined thinner/fatter/more apple booty future. I no longer own a scale to compare myself to yesterday or tomorrow. I am not saying you shouldn't own one, I am saying we must be free from being a prisoner to anything that disempowers us, for me one of those things was owning a scale.

9. Being kind and feeling beautiful about myself directly enables me to be kind and see all my sisters as irreplaceably beautiful.

We have been taught since we were ridiculously little that we are in competition with one another. This consumes precious time and energy with terrible feelings of jealousy, envy and being just flat out un-kind. When we 'hate' another woman because we think she is more beautiful/successful than we are, we are directly hurting our precious being when we could be more abundantly impecable with our words for empowerment, love and BEAUTY making :)

10. A Body Positive and Self Love Movement Is For Everyone and We Need Lots of Cooks In This Revolutionary Kitchen!

One thousand and ninety two people backed my book project on Kickstarter and that single campaign has completely changed my work and my path so that I can dedicate my time to empowering my 'sisters.' Because of my simple project, women and men from all over the world have been inspired to produce more "unphotoshopped' images of women to start the healing of loving ourselves in entirety. Other radical sisters like my amazing Australian inspiration Taryn, founder of Body Image Movement and my divine dear friend and inspiration Jes aka The Militant Baker are rallying their communities in the name of self love and interconnected kindness and hundreds if not thousands of more women from all over the world are dedicating their lives to feeling beautiful and wanting to inspire YOU to feel beautiful inside and out so that we can live this crazy and short life with as much joy and kindness as possible. The world need us to be leaders of beauty and kindness. Lets show the world what beautiful truly means.

(The following photos are outtakes from my book, The Bodies of Mothers)

And that single self portrait that got this party started: