I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I posted this photo above of a friend of mine I took in my studio here in Tucson, AZ.
I had already posted photos of my post-birth body to show the world what I was going through after my son Sequoia came into this world. And through all of this I realized that there were hundreds and thousands of women who also wanted to share their life stories about their bodies! The emails started flooding in and I realized I had to build this project, that it was my calling. The stories have been intense, beautiful, painful, and everything in between.
A Beautiful Body project is movement of women coming together to tell their stories and celebrate their ever-changing bodies so that future generations of women can live free from self-suffering.
The first element of the project is going to be a book of 100 or more black-and-white photographs of mothers accompanied by their own stories in their own words about her own personal journey with what beauty and feeling beautiful in a culture that alters over 90% of all media means to her.
My intention is for this book, with your help, is to continue on with other ‘A Beautiful Body’ volumes such as beautiful women facing aging, beautiful women dealing with cancer, beautiful young women facing eating disorders and beyond.
I have heard hundreds of stories now. Anorexia, childhood bulimia, the mother of a woman told her she was too fat to be a ballerina, self-hatred, self-suffering. Feeling unsexy because she perceived her nipples as imperfect, feeling unsexy because she lost too much weight after breast feeding. Feeling like there was something deeply wrong with her because she only lost 5 pounds 9 months after the birth of her 2nd child. Mourning the loss of her un-suckled breasts. Sexual abuse, self-inflicted abuse, teenage and young adult drug addictions due to self loathing because she never felt beautiful; breast cancer after the birth of a long awaited pregnancy, loss of a baby at birth with a wrinkly tummy to remind her everyday of what might have been. There can be so many stories shadowing a woman in our culture. We are, however, also incredible blessed with tremendous amounts of freedom and the ability to shape-shift concepts and ideas in our country. We have the ability to feel worthy, to believe we are beautiful and to be a part of a community of people who wish to share beauty and joy in this world.
I offer the photoshoots to women for free of course, and I have a family that I need to support as well and this is why your support means the world to me. All the women photographed are volunteers to show and tell their stories so that other women can step out of the shadows and from behind the veils to see their own divine beauty as women, mothers, hopeful mothers, mothers who have faced loss, mothers who are healing, mothers who are thriving and to women across this Planet.
The project is intended to redefine beautiful. Our bodies. Ourselves. Our World. Our families. We are beautiful.
Thank you for being a part of the magic we are creating together!
-Jade Beall
Founder of Project: Beautiful Body
Your pictures make me cry. I am a mother of a 6 month old and these pictures REALLY speak to my soul. Thank you for your amazing work.
THANK YOU for taking the time to spend on my website! So honored to have you here!
it’s the dimple that does me in
Awww thank you!! I love dimples too
xo
Thank you
I would love to be a part of this amazing work! Are you still photographing?
I am still photographing. Hopefully this will become an ongoing media platform with magazines, etc! please send an email! thank you! my partner: [email protected] xoxo
I’d love to see a c-section scar included. I have a very hard time accepting mine. If I lived in Tucson I’d offer it up anyway, but I’m up in Flagstaff. It is beautiful, important work that you do.
I have a few in the book, but i need MORE! If you come to Tucson pls let me know…. xo, Jade
SO grateful for all that this is. Too often I find myself concluding that I am unbeautiful because I am not in perfect health, I have addictions and I do not represent the “ideal image of goddess.” Even in a “spiritual” forum I feel that the hourglass, big eyed, long flowing hair woman is valued as “more enlightened”, more in her power. Furthermore, boobs are beautiful in all ways, please let’s let them be free and out.
Though I am not yet a mother I am deeply touched by this gallery. I would LOVE to see more!
Thank you <3
Dear Jade,
What a beautiful, happy idea you have created for the world to share. I applaud you! I am a Mother,Grandmother, and Wife who has ( and stil is!) lost over 60 lbs, and is loving my new brown body again.
I do live in Tucson, and i have never been accused of being shy! I would love and be very flattered to someday be included in your portfolio.
BTW, my ‘goal’ weight is about 30lbs away, so its around the corner, and Ive done it all naturally.
Take care,
Cindy
I truly hope someone will do this for men.
Steven, perhaps you might be the one?
I would like to see more post-menopausal women. Aging is difficult and looking in the mirror is sometimes shocking and sometimes painful. Especially if we are carrying around the baggage of emotional damage about our physical selves, from an unforgiving world. Older men receive an age status of distinguished. Older women receive a status of OMG what happened to you? It is hard to understand when you are young. I embrace your project, however it goes, you are doing a good thing.
If this first “mothers” edition gets funded, beautiful women embracing aging is the next one up!
I woke up this morning and weighed myself and was very unhappy. I think that I look relatively great for a 53 year old women who has had four children. However, the number on the scale screamed frumpy to me. Thank you for these amazing images and for helping me to realize what a beautiful women I still am….
Your work in simply beautiful……I’m thrilled to know of your project and thoughts regarding a post-menopausal project, as well. I have had three wonderful bio daughters, and am adopting a lovely 13 year old girl from Haiti this year, as well. I also have eleven wonderful grandchildren. I am 61. Over the years I have tried to accept my body with all its imperfections, but have been marginally successful. I would love to be part of your next project if you get to that stage in this adventure!
Such inspiring work. I wish you lots of success with this initial project so that you may go forth with the other works you have planned.
Hi Jade
I am a journalist from India (Hyderabad). I came across this site through a friend. I simply love the idea. I think it is very noble. My paper (Postnoon. http://www.postnoon.com) is very interested in doing a story on you. We have a special column called Women, where I think the story will fit rightly.
Please let me know how you are comfortable connecting. Over emails or on gtalk is fine by me.
Thank you
Kanchan Agarwal
Correspondent
Postnoon
+91 9160392710
[email protected]
This is a subject close to my heart - good luck with it! I specialise in showing women 40 plus how beautiful they truly are. Your images are uncompromising, but strangely affecting. We all need to look at ourselves with forgiving, unself-critical eyes.
That I’m seeing this on Facebook today is so timely. I had my only child three years ago, at age 42.5. I’m at an age when women’s bodies start to become less elastic. That, coupled with the changes fertility treatments and childbearing brought to my body, sent me right back to the mindset I worked so hard to shed in my late 30s — the mindset that gave too much of a shit about how I looked. I’d gotten to a point around age 40 where I said, “This is my body. I love it.” But recently, I started trying to fit in more workouts (not a bad thing) and started Weight Watchers because I wasn’t happy with how my body looks. After a few months of that and a loss of only a few pounds, I decided to reclaim that liberating mindset I’d adopted at age 40. This is my body. It cradled and sustained my unborn child for 10 months. It gave life to my now-exuberant 3-year-old son. This is my body, stretch marks and loose skin and all. I love it.” Thank you for this project, which reminds me to keep this mantra close at hand.
Hey Kathleen, would you email your story to [email protected] thanks!-Jade
where are u located… are u still shooting pics? I love this concept. I had my son at 24, hes 5 now, but swore I was the only one my age with stratch marks like mine on my stomach. its been the number one thing ive had the hardest time with. its hard being young, still wanting to wear a two piece bathing suit like my friends but having to avoid all activities that required a suit. all my friends have kids.too but none with stretch marks. even more hard. it.consumes me and its hard even knowing the beauty it represents. losing weight only makes.them.look worse. would love to.be a parts of your book if still.working on it.
ps sorry for all the periods typing on my phone.
Wow! The photo’s brought tears….I am a mother of 5, age 17 down to 2. Of course I miss, and remember my pre child body, slim, fit, etc. I have struggled over the years with hating my new “mom” body every time I fold the laundry, try clothes on at the store, or come accross an old pair of skinny jeans. I feel lucky though to be from a culture, Native American, that honors and beautifies motherhood. Mother’s, in our culture, are the lifegivers, the one’s who keep our people strong. I am also lucky to have a husband who absolutly loves that I have given him his children and let’s me know on a daily basis that he thinks I am even more beautiful now than ever. He fully understands and respects the changes a woman goes through to become a mother and loves every stretch mark, and extra pinch on my body. We have made a point in raising our 17 year old daughter, and will do the same with our 2 year old (the other 3 are boys) being open and honest about how the media portrays women. We have used every teachable moment we can to teach her about advertising, photoshopping, sexualizing, and stereotyping of women. I feel confident that we have done a good job. Our oldest daughter is a strong, confident young woman who is comfortable in her skin, however,I am still often saddened by the fact that we have to work as hard as we have at it in this day and age to educate our daughters. It is hard for our culture sometimes to understand how it could have gotten this way to begin with, or why. It is hard to raise a little Indian girl amongst a sea of Barbie dolls and media bombshells without her thinking at some point that there is something wrong with her for not looking like “that”. I praise you and thank you for tackling this much needed project! I am lucky to have the support I do, but I know many are not. I know many are embarrassed, scared, depressed, and emotionally changed by their new bodies and I think this will really help many. Again, thank you! After all, women are the givers of all life!
Jade,
YOU are amazing. This work is incredible and I LOVE IT!!!!
I would love to promote your book, website, story on my new blog Embracing the mother figure ( great minds think alike) Would you be willing to write something about your vision including all of your contact details etc and of course any photos …..
http://embracingthemotherfigure.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/embracing-mother-figure.html
Please do !!!!!
Warmest wishes in sisterhood
Rachel [email protected]
Jade,
I’m 23 with a 6 month old little boy. After giving birth to him I literally was disgusted with the way my belly looked. I had never seen so much loose skin and stretch marks in my life. When I look around at all of the mothers that I come across it seems to me that none of them have the “proof” of having a child like I do. I wouldn’t trade my son for any of my stretch marks but it is so hard to feel beautiful when it’s frowned upon to be a healthy weight and when you’re stared at if you wear a bathing suit that shows your stretch marks. It’s summer time and I would like nothing more than to feel comfortable enough to lay by the pool in my bathing suit but I still can’t make myself even look in the mirror at my stomach for the thoughts that run through my mind. I have a hard time believing the love of my life when he tells me that I’m beautiful and sexy even though I know he loves me more than life itself. It’s sickening to know that the reason women think all of these horrible things about their body is because the media is so adamant about showing beauty as 5’10″, 125 lbs, with a big chest! 1% of the population actually looks like that and even then they are still photoshopped.
Thank you so much for this project. You have definitely won my support!
Abigail
Thank you so much for the amazing work you are doing for women everywhere!
I am a young mother of a beautiful daughter. I cannot explain to you the impact this project has had on me. It consumes my thoughts, I am obsessed. I’d love to know where I am able to contact you so I can share my story.
Regards.
Hilary
Hi Hilary! Please email us and check out this page to send us a little bit about your story: http://www.abeautifulbodyproject.com/submit-your-story/
sending you LOVE!
-Jade
Hi…What an amazing idea. Thank you so much for bringing all of this into the light. One suggestion…..It is not only young women who suffer from eating disorders. Numbers are climbing for middle aged woman (and men).
;):);)
Personally I have had every “Ism, Itis etc. I have survived more than most people can even watch in a year of afternoon talk shows.
I have always felt ugly, but in looking at photos I was far from it. But on the inside nothing ever felt perfect like I thought it should.
It has been a half century and I would like to put down the ball and chain and just learn to love me for me…..imperfections and all.
This book project will be fantastic
This is an incredible story in so many ways. I wish I was able to embrace myself in such a way that all the women you have photographed have been able to. I am a woman that others see as attractive, but I do not feel it at all. Why is it so hard to accept ourselves for what we are? Instead, I am 28 years old,5’6, and 128 pounds and I’m still trying to lose a few more pounds, wear shapewear under my clothes almost every day, and pick apart every last part of my aesthetic being. It seems as if people can’t see your authentic self if you aren’t packaged in a way to present it correctly. Still yet, there is an overwhelming desire to improve myself instead of just accepting my body as it is. Due to a medical condition, my body doesn’t work how it’s supposed to all the time. I think that’s why I have a need to improve the aesthetics…to hide the malfunction. This project is inspiring beyond words.
Wow! What an inspired project! What an inspiring project!
I am now 46. My children are 26, 23 and 8. My body bounced back so easily with my oldest kids.
The 14 year gap made such a difference in how my body responded. The third was also a c section, which was devastating. ac section.
Jade,
I learned of your project when my older cousin shared the kickstart video on Facebook. I’m almost 15, but already I understand the beauty and deep meaning behind your project. My own mom had to have a C-Section in order to have me (I was quite a stubborn baby, and would just not turn my head). I respect and admire my mom for what she’s had to do to make sure both my older sister and myself have a great life. She’s gorgeous! Scars, stretch marks, skin and all.
I truly know the ridiculous “standards” that girls and women are put to throughout social media and society. I struggled with my own body image throughout Elementary and Middle school because of bullying. Now a sophomore in high school, I’ve embraced myself for who I am. A great, happy and beautiful person! I have friends, a wonderful family, and I’ve found an unbelievable passion in music. The beautiful body project embodies everything that a woman should believe about herself. That she’s strong, gorgeous and wonderful in everything that she is and does.
I applaud you for your fantastic project, it’s truly inspiring!
This is sooo beautiful. I wish I lived in Az to participate. If you ever do a shoot in Chicago, please let me know. I would be honored as would my 7 & 11 year old girls who celebrate their own very different bodies. Xoxo
My husband went to highschool in Chicago, Tricia, so I do hope to get there! Send us your story to [email protected] so we can let you know when we get there. You can learn more about submitting your story here: http://www.abeautifulbodyproject.com/submit-your-story/
I love what you’re doing. It speaks volumes, not just to me as a women and a mother, but it really, really made me think. I’m pregnant with my third child and each pregnancy has been different and my body has been different before and after, each time. My first son, I gained 60 pounds and it stuck around until he was almost a year old. Meanwhile, the women in my family were on a health kick and everyone was losing weight and comparing how thin they were getting; but there I was watching, feeling HUGE and out of place in my own skin. With my daughter, I gained much less and felt much better about myself during and after. NOT because of what I had or had not gained, but because I knew what to expect. The magnificent and sometimes scary changes that happen to the body during and post pregnancy. We are beautiful, strong creatures - we have the ability to make and carry life within us. So thank you, from the bottom of my overly emotional heart for taking the time to make this.
This is a wonderful project. I was a midwife when I was younger, later I became an painter and writer. Women and their bodies have always been a part of my art.
We are all so influenced by the so called norm, the images, suggesting what beauty is. How sad.
I always loved people’s stages in life, from the wrinkled newborn to the old, wrinkly grandparents.
I wish I could take a picture of a very old woman, holding her newly born great grand child!
Maybe this will be me one day!
Good luck with this wonderful project!
this is beautiful. as a young mother myself, who’s body did NOT go back to being tight its refreshing to see im not alone. i feel like in the media these days, all you see are the celebrities, who have no stretchmarks, loose all the weight in record time, etc. I have to remind myself sometimes, through the tears, that my stretched out and saggy tummy, housed my beautiful HEALTHY daughter. and for that, im internally grateful to my body.
Thank You Dear Heart!!
Your work is so amazing and so very beautiful. I am a mother of a 4 year old boy and a 9 month old girl. Ever since my daughter was born I have been so aware of how I want her to grow up and feel about her body. I have always struggled to feel like I am enough as I am, in my own skin. I love your photos, the women, children. Amazing and so strong and beautiful. We all need to love our bodies more. Thank you for reminding me. If you ever come to Canada I would love to meet you and shoot with you. xo
I hope to meet you and come to dream Land CANADA!! Thank you!!!
hi jade! my name is Cecilia and i’m from Uruguay (a really small country next to Argentina and Brazil, South America), i’m 21 now but a have a baby at 17. My body is not the same, i fell really close to the woman in the pictures. I have a lot of striaes and my skin is very flaccid, i saw this proyect in a web site and i love it!! it’s awesome!! i have no words to describe how much this help me, since i became in to a mom i have a lot of confidence problems and see this photos makes me fell that i’m not the only one who lives with it. congratulations!!!! i hope that your proyect gets huge!!!
love, Ceci
p.s.sorry i’m not very good in english, hope you understand!
What a wonderful project! Thank you for doing this… I am a 42 year old mom of two girls, ages 12 & 14 and I have yet to reconcile myself to my forever changed body. I have always had an image complex anyway, always been a big girl - even when I was skinny! My body changed so much after having my girls, especially #2 (I had an overly large amount of fluid which made my belly positively HUGE, then her birth was an emergency C due to placenta previa resulting in a saggy baggy belly). Add to that ovary removals due to cysts and a hysterectomy resulting in surgical menopause. All this equals zero confidence. My husband insists that he loves me just the way I am. It doesn’t help that I now have subzero libido and my husband looks at naked women on the computer to “help things move along”. Maybe someday, if I eat right and exercise, maybe I’ll get a little closer to the body I used to be… but I doubt it. I try and keep my unhappiness about my body to myself and teach my girls good and healthy habits, but it’s hard and my youngest is already too concerned. Gotta try harder.
Thanks to you and the beautiful women for sharing your glorious moments
captured in your book. It brought me to tears, made me smile, and inspired
me to love my body…myself.
As a mother of a beautiful 3 year old daughter, I have vowed not to to
pass down my insecuritites. It’s hard. I try not to delete pictures that
I’m in because I think I look fat, double chin, whatever.
I will turn 40 in December and to this day my mother still criticizes how I
look. At her last visit she brought a bag of her clothes to give me. I
recently lost 50 pounds after being diagnosed with thyroid disease. She
walked in my front door and handed me the clothes and said “Now that you’ve
lost weight you might be able to fit in there. They were from when I was
at my fattest ” Ouch. She didn’t even say hello before the insults began.
Anyways, thank you. I only wish I was in AZ so that I could meet you. Keep up your beautiful and inspiring work.
Kelly
My daughter is almost a month old now. I gave birth to her naturally on 6/1/2013. I’m having a hard time getting used to this new body of mine that’s still healing. While my beautiful baby girl was so worth it, I wonder if I’ll ever look as I once did again. And if not, can I be OK with that? After seeing your segment just now on the Today show and now browsing your site, I feel so empowered. I’m going to try and lose the rest of this baby weight, and while I’ll never get rid of my many stretch marks, and the way that even the shape of my body has changed…I’m OK with that After seeing some of your photos, I know it’s going to be OK. My husband still loves me, loves me more even for the gift I’ve brought into our lives…and nothing else matters. I feel great.
Thanks to you and the beautiful women for sharing your glorious moments
captured in your book. It brought me to tears, made me smile, and inspired
me to love my body…myself.
As a mother of a beautiful 3 year old daughter, I have vowed not to to
pass down my insecuritites. It’s hard. I try not to delete pictures that
I’m in because I think I look fat, double chin, whatever.
I will turn 40 in December and to this day my mother still criticizes how I
look. At her last visit she brought a bag of her clothes to give me. I
recently lost 50 pounds after being diagnosed with thyroid disease. She
walked in my front door and handed me the clothes and said “Now that you’ve
lost weight you might be able to fit in these. They were from when I was
at my fattest ” Ouch. She didn’t even say hello before the insults began.
Anyways, thank you. I only wish I was in AZ so that I could meet you. Keep up your beautiful and inspiring work.
Kelly
JADE!!! I am COMPELLED!!! I live in Alabama but I want to hop on the next flight to AZ. I am 45-years-old and I have been struggling with anorexia for sixteen years. When I saw the segment on your project on the “Today Show” today, I HAD to find out more information. This project is amazing. Currently, according to my doctor, I’m at a healthy weight. However, I feel the need to lose 10 lbs pronto! I am so self conscious. I refuse to put on a bathing suit. I hate my thick thighs. I hate how they jiggle and touch. I hate my sagging butt and sagging breasts. I hate all my lumps, bumps, muffin tops….the list goes on. But your project shed a whole new light on my perception of myself. THANK YOU FOR DOING THIS PROJECT!!! I want to help. I want to spread the word, which is something I can do. I am part of a large network of people with eating disorders here in Alabama. Your link is being forwarded everywhere!!!
Karen, please send me your story to [email protected] and say “Ready To Fly To Tucson” in the subject line!!! Let’s help those in your network and beyond! -Jade
WOW! Thank you so much for the work that you do. How inspiring. As a mother of a 2 year old, I find myself still trying to adjust to the body I have now. I have good days and bad, but always remember the awesome blessing it is to become a mother. Just last week I bought my first bikini since becoming pregnant! It hasn’t made it out of my backyard yet, but before the summer comes to an end, I bet it does!!! Thanks again, sister!
I congratulate you on taking this vision and making it real. As most women know it is greatly needed. I am hopeful that your work will help me. I am someone who has gone through much abuse and from that I have the after effects of self hatred, never being enough, and never liking my body. I am working hard to battle the eating disorder that I have. I am hopeful that your book will help redefine how I see myself and what beauty is. Thank you for helping so many women. You are truly a blessing and a gift.
I am loving your work and website! Thank you for heeding your call to do this. I wonder if there will be photographs of labia in your book? My own were radically altered by the birth of my son almost three years ago and, while I wouldn’t have considered it the image of perfection before - I actually really never even thought about it: well, one doesn’t tend to see it so, out of sight, out of mind - I now have a hard time accepting how it looks - the phrase ‘busted slipper’ just pops into my head when I see it, which doesn’t fill me with warm thoughts of self-acceptance. Consequently I feel a bit hung up about my post-pregnancy sexuality and what my husband must think. Is this an area that your book might address? It seems pretty important to me. Thanks again and keep up the good and beautiful work, C x
Je suis une française de 28 ans, et je suis désolée de vous écrire dans ma langue maternelle, mais mon anglais est vraiment mauvais… Maman d’une petite Margaux de 5 mois et demi, je suis particulièrement touchée par vos clichés qui mettent le doigt sur un sujet tellement réel, le mal à accepter son corps et le fait qu’il puisse encore être beau… Regarder ces clichés nous montre à quel point le corps d’une femme peut-être peut-être épanoui après avoir donner la vie et avoir subi toutes ces transformations… Un grand Merci, vous êtes une artiste !!! Thank You !!!
it s makes me dream!! It s wonderful !! I m trying to love my body again after pregnancy it s not easy in oural society but people lire make it easier !! Sorry for my english i m from switzerland and too far away for making picture how can we get thé book i rallye want it!!!
I came across your project by shear luck and I am amazed by it. The photos are beautiful. I am a twenty five year old woman who has not yet had the joy of having children. My husband and I are in the lets enjoy us stages but are very quickly moving towards the let’s have kids part. I was terrified. Not of the baby or raising a baby or of my husband’s diapering skills but instead of what would happen to me, my body, and what my husband would think of it afterwards. I know I can be a good mother but would I still be an attractive woman to my husband? In my own eyes? This project verifies that I am not alone in these fears but also shows me that though my body will change that makes it no less beautiful. Thank you…you have done more than you could imagine for so many.
Beautiful project. If you’re ever shooting in the SF Bay Area in CA I would love to come participate and show off my c-section scar and stretch marks.
I’m 38, fighting against cancer and chemo …
I would like so much to have “pregnancy tatoo” on my skin to show, to be proud of, but by now this is so far and, maybe, only a dream …
Thank you for this work, for your sensibility and love for women. Your photos give streight to me and make me understand what means “to be mother”.
Am from colombia, this proyect it amazing, am not a mom yet but when i see this beautyfull photo my heart beats strong, is wonderful to know that these projects are trying to change the vision of what is beauty, because we need (womans and mens) to change our vision to teach other forms of beaty and let to everybody know that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, my most sincere wishes for all the beautiful women photos. Thanks to Jade for this proyect