Wanda’s Boudoir Journey

Hello Everyone,

I just wanted to get personal with this post and really share more about me.

We all have our own stories and journeys. And it really seems like your journey that leads you to doing a boudoir shoot is shaped very much by your past, as much as it is about your present life. Okay, so here goes.

My self esteem, for most of my life, was low, really low. I was molested at a young age, which caused me to have feelings of shame and guilt about my own body. As a child, I grew up in a very poor, verbally abusive home. I got picked on school for not having nice clothes and since we moved A LOT, I was always the new kid. As a teenager, I was thin and besides a major overbite (which I was always self conscious about), I got lots of attention for boys. My home life hadn’t improved, so I got into lots of bad things and made many, many bad choices. I did, however, choose a good boyfriend, Roy. My life changed forever when I got pregnant during my Junior year of high school. I gained 50 lbs, got stretch marks and all the other issues that comes with pregnancy. Roy and I got married at 17 years old.

My daughter was born four months before I turned 18. I have never regretted having my daughter, however, I have always felt like I missed out on growing into my adult body. I never got to be the “perfect” bodied 20 something year old that I could have been, had I not gone through pregnancy so young. Having stretch marks and a little poochy tummy at 18 didn’t help me feel any better about my body image.

Every four years for 12 years, I had a baby. Yes, at one point, I had a 12 year old, 8 year old, 4 year old and a newborn… all girls. After all of that, I  had my first shoot. Mell Bell photographed me. And I photographed her (she was 4 months pregnant with her daughter).

And… I loved it! I loved the photos of me. I loved the feeling of being photographed for my husband. Doing a shoot for my husband was like giving him another piece of me, a special piece that was just for him. It was something I chose and I could make it whatever I wanted it to be. I fell in love with boudoir photography. (Now I am gonna cry!) I fell in love for what it did for me and for what it does for the women we photograph. That’s why I am passionate about boudoir photography.

You got this!