I am Beauty Revived

Life has taken me and my little family on some crazy turns in the past few years. Between layoffs, career changes, having kids and moves, it’s taken me a while to feel confident in my ability to make my photography business work. First of all, I’m a work at home mom, with a husband that travels for his career, so being able to navigate parenting responsibilities with that of running a business, has been very much my biggest challenge.

But looking back over the past year or so, I think it was so hard partly because I didn’t really have my WHY. Why was this my career choice? Beyond wanting to be home with my kids and being my own boss (and don’t get me wrong, those are big ones). But, I mean I could do any number of things, I have a Fine Art degree, I worked in graphic design and advertising and could have easily continued my freelance career, or gone to work for another agency. But something kept telling me no, you need to do this, and you need to do more.

You see it finally clicked last year, that by more I didn’t mean more clients, more business. Obviously that’s a goal – I need to pay my bills, haha! But I realized that it all had to have meaning beyond that. See I don’t take photographs of my clients just to make money and have a job. I do it so they can see themselves, and have a legacy. In this digital age, with every one and their dog having cameras and social media, and sharing all the time… we’ve also become lost in authenticity. I see this particularly in the senior market, where these kids take selfies all day long but they still don’t really see themselves. They focus on perfection and don’t realize THEY ARE PERFECT already. God made each and every one of us the way he did for a reason, and I think we all could remember that and give ourselves more grace. I truly believe my gift, is being able to help people see their own beauty. I help them see themselves the way their loved ones see them every day – as the beautiful people they are inside and out, and worthy of that love.

So that leads me to the title of this post. I came across Beauty Revived last Fall at a photography conference I was attending. And something else clicked. I could use my business to help give back as well, and this organization’s mission matched my own. Beauty Revived was established in 2014 by Michele Gifford as a way for photographers to use their lens for good and shine light on the real beauty found in communities throughout the country. Since then more than 700 women, girls and children have been featured by Beauty Revived online and in print.

“As a high school senior photographer, I started Beauty Revived because I saw the power that a photographer has in shaping perception and altering dialogue on beauty,” said Michelle Gifford, Beauty Revived founder. “The photographers who participate in our campaigns not only have great technical and artistic talent but also have big hearts and a desire to be more than just a picture taker. They want to be a photographer who changes the world with their work.”

I knew after learning more about Beauty Revived, that it was something I wanted to be a part of. And I’m so happy and honored to say, this year I was lucky enough to be selected as one of the photographers across the country to take part in their 50 Beautiful Seniors Campaign. Soon, I will be selecting a lucky 2018 High School Senior by nomination to donate a full session experience to, tell their story to be published in Beauty Revived’s magazine, AND this lucky teen will be in the running for a $1500 scholarship.

And you can help! We are starting our fundraising campaign to see how many of these $1500 scholarships we can donate this year, and help some lucky kids go to college or get a head start on life after high school 🙂 Check out this amazing photographer’s bundle Beauty Revived is offering a large part of the proceeds go to the scholarship fund! Read stories of past scholarship recipients, and see what’s in the bundle – you get $1100 worth of products for just $99! Please consider helping these deserving teens out and get some awesome swag for yourself at the same time 🙂