For women and girls around the world, and men too, I absolutely spoke my truth at the Tucson TEDx Talk about A Beautiful Body Project, body image, mass media, and the inspiring movement for body positivity that is spreading around the globe. If you had been sitting in the audience, I think you would have been proud, or at least smiling :-) (Ted video will be released at the end of December!)

Why did I start this project? Why do I have to call the bodies I photograph beautiful when industries and media have been shoving 'beauty' down our reluctant and fragile throats for so long? Why do I insist on making rolls and cellulite beautiful, so many people ask me? The answer is simple: I have lived 24 of my 34 years on this Planet life feeling ugly, feeling gross, feeling fat and pimply and completely unworthy of love, beauty or success. I have always been very smart, charismatic, easy to get along with, but none of that mattered to me because I defined myself as ugly. Ugly was the place I used to live, simply because I learned to see myself that way. Why do I insist on calling this body 'beautiful' of mine that I learned to label ugly? Because now, for the first time since I was 10 years old, I feel beautiful and my life is finally at peace. I am beautiful like a Sequoia tree is beautiful, like you are beautiful, like the stars are beautiful, like our children are beautiful. Life made no mistake, life created beauty! It's humans who try to convince ourselves and others that beauty is something exclusive or that comes with a price tag. We agree that we must label ourselves and others as perfect or imperfect, as beautiful or ugly, and that leaves us not only alone wishing for a scene of belonging, it also takes away our ability to see beauty in this epic planet we have the honor of living on in this short, precious life.

So how and why did I, and so many of you , learn to feel so darn 'ugly?'

Yes, that's me holding my rolls on that brightly-lit TED Talk stage for all the world to see, because this is me. Clearly, there was no better place for me to begin my talk than with an exploration of the causes dysmorphia of the brain for waaaaaaaaay too many of us, which prevents us from seeing ourselves as truly beautiful, right? So which of these images look familiar?

Which are ALL altered, some un poquito, some mucho:

We are told through powerful imagery that getting old is not beautiful unless you are photoshopped. Let Madonna have her wrinkles already! She is 55 years old and she has damn well earned those wisdom lines of beauty. Why do they have to make her pore-less? So far I haven't met any women without pores... So WHY is this the image they want us to see? And more importantly, why do we choose to believe that the image on the right below is actually how Madonna looks? How come so very few of us know about the regular practice of massive photoshopping that dramatically alters the photos we see of our beloved celebrities?

The thing is though, the models in the billboards and magazines are not at fault, and SURELY it's not Madonna's fault. They are just being themselves, they have known pain and joy and deserve love and praise and to feel beautiful just as WE ALL DO. There are, however, boardrooms of smiling folks,

who are not in the Self-Esteem business but in the business of making mucho mucho money. And more specifically, making money by selling you deficit mentality, by convincing you that you are broken, imperfect, no bueno, that you are defined by your tender rolls or beautiful flat chest or lovely textured pimples or delicious dark or light skin or by your sacred cellulite or your sweet thin lips. They say you are a freak and ugly unless you buy 'things' or operations that you, the consumer, hopelessly surrender your precious and irreplaceably beautiful and authentic body to, which they all too gladly would like to add to these numbers:

• The American Society of Plastic Surgeons reported that in 2012, 14.6 million procedures, including minimally invasive and surgical, were performed in the U.S.

So why is my work so important? What is the message you get when you see photos of a variety of un-photoshopped women?

The message says that YOU, yes YOU belong here. That YOU are worthy of being a model and of being photographed without altering your precious body with photoshop simply because there is NO ONE ELSE like you on this planet and THAT alone is beautiful.

“Understanding the difference between healthy striving and perfectionism is critical to laying down the shield and picking up your life. Research shows that perfectionism hampers success. In fact, it's often the path to depression, anxiety, addiction, and life paralysis.” -Brenè Brown

An image I took a few weeks ago of a mother daughter duo. The daughter is fighting cancer. Photoshop is not welcome here. Beauty is abundant and we now can finally share it with each other:

It's not about praising only skinny women or only voluptuous women. It's not about judging each other on who is "healthy" or "not healthy" when most of us are non-health care professionals doing the judging. The only thing ANYONE needs is love, praise and to gift them with the very very healthy for all people medicine of BELONGING.

So when we share ourselves as we truly are, (for me today that would mean being my freaky self and not needing to condemn myself afterwards for being who I just am), we not only grant allowance to LOVE ourselves entirely without needing to find deficit in who we are, we also have the beautiful opportunity to inspire OTHERS to love themselves wholeheartedly too. Love infects, it's pretty cool. And I am in complete love with my own version of a Victoria Secret Model that I had the honor to photograph a few weeks ago:

“Vulnerability is the birthplace of love, belonging, joy, courage, empathy, and creativity. It is the source of hope, empathy, accountability, and authenticity. If we want greater clarity in our purpose or deeper and more meaningful spiritual lives, vulnerability is the path.” -Brenè Brown

Here is how I use photoshop: to dream and hope that one day you will see my and other images like mine which celebrate this preciousness we all share called life:

“For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.” -Nelson Mandela

May we find freedom from jeopardizing our precious joy. May we be proud of who were are, and may we learn to see the world through un-photoshopped eyes and recognize the tremendous beauty in this beloved moment.

love,

Jade

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Oh oh oh have you preordered my book yet? It'll be DONE before mother's day, a super sweet offering of love for a new or seasoned mama.