You have to do what makes you happy, and what makes you feel good!

Tell me your story. What do you want people to know about who you are and why you are participating in this project?

Hi everyone! My name is Katelynne (although most of my friends just call me Kate) and I am a 28-year-old Public Health Inspector who loves hiking and riding horses. Since I was a teenager, I have always admired and appreciated boudoir and pin up artwork, and it was always something I thought I would love to do for myself one day. However, my entire life I have struggled with being overweight, which has led to some serious self-esteem and self-image issues throughout my life. Because of these issues I quickly gave up on the idea of every doing something like a boudoir shoot for myself, and honestly, I would have not changed my mind on that if it were not for something that happened to me last year. At the end of last year, I finally made the decision to undergo weight-loss surgery to get my health and my life back on a positive track. Since having the surgery my health has improved and even more, so my self-confidence has dramatically improved. I can honestly say that for the first time in my life I feel comfortable in my own skin! It is for this reason that once I found out about this Body Love Project, I knew I had to apply to participate. Here was an opportunity for me to do something to celebrate all my challenging work getting healthy over this past year and fulfill a dream I had given up on ever making a reality. So, when Christina emailed me to offer me a spot to participate in this year's project, I jumped at the opportunity to share my story and my experience with other women.

Tell me about all of your favourite features and the things you would like to emphasize in your photos! This can include physical body parts or a part of your personality!

Physically my top three favorite features are my eyes, my chest, and my derrière. I have always loved playing with different dramatic makeup looks to draw attention to my eyes; no look is complete without some winged eyeliner. In terms of my chest, like all the women in my family I have always been very chesty since I hit puberty. Thankfully growing up with similarly chesty and confident women in my family it has always been a source of pride and confidence; in the infamous words of my grandmother “if you got, flaunt it baby girl!” The same goes for my rear end. I grew up in an active household and was always one of the “strong kids.” As such I have always been muscular in my lower body (thank you years of riding, swimming, rugby, and doing barn chores). As a young woman this led to me having some serious insecurities around how muscular my legs and butt were. A lot of girls I went to high school and university with used to shy away from being too muscular for fear of looking “bulky” or “big” and admittedly I let them influence how I felt about my own body. Thankfully, my parents and best friend always encouraged me to lean into my strengths because in in their opinion at least it was better to be strong than to be skinny. Therefore, after many years of not liking my thighs or butt, I managed to turn the tables on my insecurities and turn them into one of my favorite features. All I am really hoping to embrace and highlight all these features in my photos. Personality wise, I will be the first to admit I have a big personality and I try to reflect that in my style and my interests. From my grey and purple hair to my piercings, and the overall punk rock aesthetic I try to portray every day, I do not think Christina will have a problem getting that part of me to shine through in the photos.

Are you nervous about having boudoir portraits done? Tell me about your feelings leading up to your shoot.

For me I was more nervous about 1.) making the decision to apply to participate in this project and 2.) waiting to her back from Christina about whether I would even been accepted. I am very much the type of person can get nervous about deciding or waiting for an answer (patience is not a virtue I have mastered, and I am not a fan of not knowing things). However, once I decided or I get a solid answer I am no longer nervous or anxious. From that point forward, it is either excitement or disappointment depending on the outcome. All this it to say that once I got the email form Christina letting me know that I had been selected to participate it was nothing but pure excitement for me!

What do you want other women to think and feel when they view your portraits in your featured blog post? Is there anything else you want to share?

I would love it if other women thought “Wow, she looks like a badass” but that might just be my own inflated ego speaking lol. More importantly I hope that when other women see my photos, they see someone who is comfortable and confident in her own skin and that hopefully that helps inspire them to start finding ways to feel that about them self. As someone who has long struggled (and on days continues to struggle) with my self-confidence, especially as it related to my physical appearance, the best advice I ever got from my best friend was “you have to do what makes you happy, and what makes you feel good.” No one else can tell you how to feel happy or feel good, and over this past year of finding my own self-confidence, I have extended that advice to also mean that no one else can tell you how to feel confident. For me personally, nothing makes me feel for confident than doing my face all up with my most dramatic and colorful eye makeup that I can think of, wearing my favorite studded leather jacket, and wearing a low-cut shirt that shows of the ladies. Now that is just me, but no matter what makes you feel confident at the end of the day I passionately believe that feeling confident in your own skin (no matter what makes you feel that way) is what important. Because nothing is more powerful than a confident woman!

Now that your session is over, how do you feel about the experience? Was it everything you had hoped?

Yes Tell me something that you learned about yourself from having this experience.

Having completed this experience, I have learned that I can in fact feel sexy and flirty. This was very much a new feeling for me. As someone who has always been comfortable in my role of the nerdy punk-rocker, sexy/flirty and dare I say “girly” were not really roles I ever really thought of myself as playing. So having this experience and feeling those things about myself was a cool experience. What will be even cooler is to see if those feelings were captured my Christina on camera!

If you were nervous before, tell me when your nervousness disappeared.

As a mentioned in my pre-shoot questionnaire, I was not nervous about the shoot itself. If anything, I was slightly nervous about coming across as awkward looking in the photos since I have never done anything like this before. However, within a few minutes of shooting with Christina all that awkwardness disappeared! She was so amazing at making me feel comfortable and directing me how to pose in the shots so that I did not end up looking like the awkward nerd I can sometimes be!

Do you have a final message or take-away from the Body Love Project?

My take-away from this entire experience is that honestly, this is an experience I think every woman should have at least once in their life; but especially for anyone who has ever struggled with or had moments of feeling in-secure about themselves. Christina is the epitome of a professional while also making you feel like she is one of your best friends. Participating in this project was such a fun experience, but also a major confidence boost! Moreover, the beauty of it being a photo-shoot is now I will have physical reminders of this experience and of that confidence I felt and know I can feel.