Lindsay Rae D'Ottavio

Transcript

i have convinced nearly 600 women to take their clothes off in front of me well not so much me as my camera and not so much just convinced as much as given permission to i am a luxury boudoir and empowerment photographer and if i have learned anything it is how deeply damaging the beauty propaganda machine is and it all hinges on one word if if i could lose some weight then i would book a session or if my breasts weren't so saggy from breastfeeding three kids then i would book a session for every client that we have there are a dozen or more who dream

of having their beauty memorialized but they're just too overwhelmed with their own bodily shame their own ifs maybe if i can fit into this teeny narrow minded mold of what society considers beautiful then i could be happy i am a size 20 woman with stretch marks and cellulite and a belly apron from my c-section and all the baggage that comes along with a childhood filled with my own father's ifs lindsay if only you lost some weight when i became a photographer in 2013 i silenced my ips and i set out on a mission to help others silence theirs as well what you have to understand

about the beauty industry is that the models don't have flawless skin no the photographer cinematographer has these little diffusion filters that they put over their lenses that scatter and diffract the light to create this sense of blur over the skin don't even get me started about photoshop you know the dirty little secret about the beauty industry is that they have to first destroy your confidence in order to build it back up and i'm not buying i remember i remember this time in high school i was looking for a homecoming dress and i almost didn't go because we couldn't find a dress that fit me that

i could afford i was a size 12 in high school i remember i came home and i i had slicked my hair back in this little bun to match the baby blue dress to look like cinderella and my dad walks in and he looks at me and he says hey lindsay you should take your hair down to hide your basketball head and then he uh walked me over to a mirror and he uh pulled my skin back to show me how much better i would look if i was skinnier in that moment my worth became contingent on if my father thought i was good enough

and as i became older it began to be contingent on if any man thought that i was good enough being a woman and loving ourselves is a near impossible challenge but through the clients that i've worked with who just trust me in their most vulnerable moments i've learned it's the relationship that i have myself that sets the tone for all of these other relationships in my life as a boss a mom a sister a wife a business owner no more i could be beautiful if i'm beautiful right now no more could i allow anxiety and ptsd to control my life but accept the fact that

taking medication does not diminish my value as a woman simply by confronting your own self-judgment your winning you are taking back your power from a society that tries to tell you that you're not good enough give yourself permission to feel beautiful and worthy right here and right now no ifs ands or buts about it

Transcript generated from the recording and lightly cleaned. Some names and wording may differ from the spoken speech.