I had a friend over the other day, we were shooting some studio portfolio images for her. It was a good time, I love working with local models and talents. Aerie came home in the middle of it and asked to take some photos. These days, she rarely lets me take her photos, so I threw her in front of the camera and she killed it. Flash. Pose. Flash. Pose. Flash. Pose. She just kept moving around and using her hands and changing her angles, and I was in tears. She makes me laugh so much.
And after, I showed her the edits and she grinned.
“Do I look pretty,” she asked.
“Do you feel pretty?” I asked back.
“I look like Supergirl,” she said, hugging me and giggling. One last look, a shrug, then she took off to play in her room.
Raising a daughter is hard.
Raising a daughter while working in an industry that values looks over quality is hard. I’m trying to teach her that beauty is skin-deep and that instead of being ‘pretty,’ we need to be strong, smart, powerful. We need to know our stories, know our ancestors, know our culture. We need to be leaders and we need to stand firm. We need to be resilient. We need to be fearless.
So if this made her feel like Supergirl, made her think of herself in any terms of female power, then yassss. I’m all for it. It’s a little moment, but it’s a good moment.
