Well I'm finally a graduate of Rocky Mountain School of Photography's Summer Intensive program!
The whole thing feels incredibly surreal. I still can't believe how much of myself I poured into it all summer. I already miss it and I wouldn't trade the experience for the world.
I wanted to share my final project with you all and hope that it makes on impact on someone. Maybe that someone is you.
Or your mother.
Or sister.
Or best friend...
Innocence Lost
The year I turned thirteen, you probably would have assumed that I was an innocent, happy girl. It is very unlikely that you would have assumed I was heartbroken, that I had depression, that I was struggling with an eating disorder.
But I was.
I was so hurt by what life had thrown at me I couldn‘t even cry. I unconsciously binge ate to ease the pain. I hid my problems and pinned a smile on my face. Innocence shattered as I experienced the cruelty life throws at millions of young girls everyday.
While I have since overcome the issues I dealt with at thirteen, my heart still breaks for those who have gone through what I have. In my very short twenty years I have cried with a friend after she was raped at age fourteen. I have watched domestic violence ruin the emotional stability of a beautiful, seventeen-year-old girl. I have heard gorgeous friends confess that they don’t think they are beautiful and go days without eating because of it. I have seen a girl attempt to hide the fear in her eyes as she became pregnant long before she planned to. I have sat stunned as one of the strongest women I know confessed to me that she once struggled with not only a distorted image of her body, but drug abuse and alcoholism.
I do not know every statistic on how many girls are raped, are depressed, have an eating disorder, or deal with unplanned pregnancies. I cannot tell you exactly how many of these stories go untold. All I can tell you is that most of them are like my thirteen-year-old self, smiling as if their purity hasn’t been dirtied, laughing as though life hasn’t stolen innocence from them.
The year I turned thirteen, you probably would have assumed that I was an innocent, happy girl. It is very unlikely that you would have assumed I was heartbroken, that I had depression, that I was struggling with an eating disorder.
But I was.
I was so hurt by what life had thrown at me I couldn‘t even cry. I unconsciously binge ate to ease the pain. I hid my problems and pinned a smile on my face. Innocence shattered as I experienced the cruelty life throws at millions of young girls everyday.
While I have since overcome the issues I dealt with at thirteen, my heart still breaks for those who have gone through what I have. In my very short twenty years I have cried with a friend after she was raped at age fourteen. I have watched domestic violence ruin the emotional stability of a beautiful, seventeen-year-old girl. I have heard gorgeous friends confess that they don’t think they are beautiful and go days without eating because of it. I have seen a girl attempt to hide the fear in her eyes as she became pregnant long before she planned to. I have sat stunned as one of the strongest women I know confessed to me that she once struggled with not only a distorted image of her body, but drug abuse and alcoholism.
I do not know every statistic on how many girls are raped, are depressed, have an eating disorder, or deal with unplanned pregnancies. I cannot tell you exactly how many of these stories go untold. All I can tell you is that most of them are like my thirteen-year-old self, smiling as if their purity hasn’t been dirtied, laughing as though life hasn’t stolen innocence from them.
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