As a boudoir photographer, I absolutely love working with my clients to help them see the beautiful side of themselves. And I especially love when I get to photograph a client like Chelsi who is searching for her lost self-confidence – because I know we will find it. Chelsi came to boudoir photography after years of being bullied and hating her body.

Chelsi’s story

Throughout middle school, Chelsi was bullied for being too skinny, for having teeth that weren’t straight and for wearing the wrong clothes. In high school, she tried to fix those things by getting braces and buying namebrand clothing, but still the bullying continued. The bullies continued to tease her about her acne and the car that she drove.

It got to the point where Chelsi was so self-conscious that she couldn’t even leave the house unless she was hiding her body in baggy clothes. She was ashamed and felt like her body wasn’t worthy of being seen.

Unfortunately, Chelsi’s body troubles didn’t stop when she left school. Shortly after high school, Chelsi was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, a disease of the large intenstine. Because of the disease, Chelsi lost weight and her hair began falling out as a side effect of her medication. Chelsi explained,

“It got to the point for me where I would cry myself to sleep, and I wasn’t comfortable wearing revealing clothes or a bathing suit in public. I was not even comfortable with my significant other looking at me, because I felt like I looked sick and just not sexy.”

After years of bullying and having her body attacked by illness, Chelsi was at an all-time low with her body confidence and self-esteem. Hearing Chelsi’s story absolutely breaks my heart. No woman deserves to feel like this.

Taking the leap with boudoir photography

So Chelsi decided to do something about it.

“I decided to go to Vivian to get a boudoir photo shoot done because people I know swore by how great her work is and how she would make me have the confidence every woman deserves to have.”

As soon as Chelsi walked through the door, it was like seeing an old friend. She told me later how she immediately felt at home and comfortable with me. You could never tell from the photos, but Chelsi was actually having a very tough day with her illness. But instead of looking sick, she just looks stunning.

One of the things I love to do with my clients as we have our boudoir photography session is show them what I’m capturing in the moment. Women are absolutely floored when I turn my camera around. They can’t believe the person on the other side of the lens is really them! Chelsi had the same reaction. The same woman who described herself as ugly, skinny and sick was now saying…

“I was absolutely stunning and just didn’t look like a person who lost all her weight and was uncomfortable in her own body.”

From bullied school girl to boudoir babe

We had an incredible time throughout the rest of Chelsi’s boudoir empowerment session. She was a total natural at posing and brought a bunch of beautiful outfits to her shoot. I could tell that Chelsi left the studio that day with a newfound sense of confidence.

A few weeks later, Chelsi received her digital photos and couldn’t wait to share them with her boyfriend. This from a woman who used to hate when her partner looked at her. When they started looking through the photos, Chelsi burst into tears. She just couldn’t believe the stunning, bold, sexy and confident woman in the photos was really her!

“I got my photos today from my shoot and I never thought in a million years I could look as sexy and beautiful as I did in them.”

Seeing Chelsi’s self-confidence grow in front of my eyes is the reason why boudoir photography is so important to me. We all deserve to know and feel how beautiful we are. After this amazing transformation, Chelsi is already planning her next boudoir photography session with me!

 “Because of Vivian, I’m so happy with how I look and truly have fallen in love with my body again.”