"When I think of the women I’ve looked up to, the first person who comes to mind is my sister, Barry.
She came out at a young age in Omaha, Nebraska. Without the internet, there wasn’t a community she could take refuge in. But she was so connected to who she is, she couldn’t pretend to live or feel any other way.
My mom is the other person I think of. My mom adopted my sister when she was 24 and pregnant with me, and my sister was 13. Think of a 24-year-old, pregnant with her first child, adopting a teenager. It blows my mind.
A big shift in me happened when I was diagnosed with endometriosis and poly-cystic ovary syndrome, which are very painful reproductive illnesses. I also had countless miscarriages and almost lost my children.
I thought that because my womb didn’t work the way I was taught it should work, I was broken. We are told as women that our great value is to be able to carry life, to carry a child. If we’re fertile and abundant, we’re a worthy goddess. But for some reason, those parts don’t function for some of us...
...With social media, everyone’s created a museum of what their life is. Do we want that museum to be halls of untruths and unattainable expectations? Or do we want to create a museum where people can walk through and cry or laugh in recognition and connection?
With this shoot, it was important for me to show the different masks that we wear on a day-to-day basis. We can become conscious of those masks by taking them off and learning who we are. We don’t learn who we are through Instagram or Twitter. Those can be great tools, but we learn who we are by going inside, looking at the shadows and the light sides of ourselves."
Read the full essay at Galore.
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