Being empowered is to grieve the sadness and to celebrate the highs, but to know that at the core of yourself there is always going to be balance.
As a twin mama and service member, Kelsey gives her all to her family and her country. And while this shoot was to gift sexy photos to her partner while she was away for work, the whole experience turned out to be something special for herself.
The experience to get ready for her boudoir shoot in the studio included intention and planning. From an outfit consultation to mindful reflection prompts and professional hair and makeup before the shoot… Each piece was meant to add depth and meaning to her experience and her final images.
Her appreciation for fantasy and her vibrant sense of humor were highlighted as we styled outfits to celebrate the various sides of her personality.
Watching her step into her confidence and embrace her beauty was so inspiring and as a fellow twin mama, I’m looking on in awe. Keep scrolling to see her images and read her interview below.
Kelsey’s Interview
How would you describe your experience today?
It was a lot of fun. I was not really sure what to expect because it wasn’t something that I had done before. And it was something that I had planned to do for my spouse as a gift, knowing that I was spending a lot more time away.
But as the planning for the day evolved, and then the actual day itself, it definitely centered more on me: what I felt was comfortable with the costumes and the attitudes that I wanted to portray or the vibe that I wanted to be able to portray. So while it is a present for somebody else’s gaze, I got to take control of the presentation of it. So it was a really cool experience.
I have my online mom group. I actually went back into that chat, and I had talked about doing a boudoir shoot two years ago when I was accepting that maybe my body was a little bit different after having the twins. And I made a comment that I should just book a boudoir shoot to embrace this new season. I found that comment and gave them the update that I finally did it! So I’m also excited to share some of this with my friends.
Now it’s kind of a full season from those comments I made two years ago, with a little reflection I’m feeling more comfortable and overcoming and just being more confident in myself.
Did you feel that confidence coming through as you were in the photos and doing the shots?
Yes! Some of the time it was really hard not to laugh and to keep a straight face.hehe. I appreciate your coaching. You kept me on target.
It was great. It was great. And the laughs and the personality is totally cool and all a part of the experience.
But with the snake and the goddess costume, it really made me feel strong. That was really important as well to kind of counterbalance some of the vulnerability of the poses with the strength of others.
I think true sensuality is such a dynamic of strength and softness. So to be able to be fluid within that whole range is a really, really cool experience.
Yeah. Yeah. It was important to be able to capture all of that. With my personality and my profession, I have more feminine and more masculine. So it was a lot of fun to be able to incorporate just the full spectrum of personality and preference into the costumes and the poses.
And then finishing up the shoot with just embracing the full mom body. What was that like for you?
There’s no crying in boudoir.
Maybe there was a little, hehe.
That was really incredible. I know that was a request during the interview. We spent a lot of time talking about the vision for this and getting to know one another so that it would be comparable – Which was so amazing BTW and made today feel incredibly natural – you asked what parts of my body I was comfortable with and wanted to highlight. And I made the comment, oh, a lot of my costumes, choices have been higher waisted because I’m more sensitive about the scars that are on my stomach as a result of C-section and there are other surgeries that have had a result with pregnancy.
And so I asked you to take photos to highlight that. And it was so artistic and beautiful and literally just moved me to tears at the end of the day.
I’m just so glad we did that shot. I feel like it was such a visual of what true raw power as a mom can look like. Motherhood can be both brutal and beautiful in the same exact moment. And that was just such a representation of that from the way that I saw it.
What does being an Empowered Mama mean to you?
I’ve been thinking about this question so much since you posted it. And I think to me, being an Empowered Mother or Empowered Mama is really stripping yourself down to the essence and finding the balance in all of the adjectives in your life. You’re a woman, a wife, a mother, whatever it is, all of the things, a service member, however you define or you describe yourself, your life experiences. For me I have gone through different stages… having to go through IVF to become a mother, then having a fairly late loss as part of our journey to become a family, the service constantly taking me away from my home so that my husband is the one who is spending a lot of the time this year at home with the kids. Being able to not necessarily let those define who I am in a way that drags me down, but leverage them as a strength to make connections with other women or other mothers or just other friends who are maybe going through the same experience. And being able to use that to speak on it and let people know that if they’re going through those hard times that they’re not alone in those experiences and that they shouldn’t be ashamed of them. Or if they’re happy experiences like Service to the Nation or Twins, to celebrate it. So being empowered is to grieve the sadness and to celebrate the highs, but to know that at the core of yourself there is always going to be balance.
That’s so powerful. Taking away all the adjectives and just coming back to who I am in this moment, knowing that the adjectives will fluctuate, it’ll change.
And that I’ll be okay at the end of the day. I’ll add some adjectives and I might lose some, but what’s important is to stay true to myself and to my family and to be able to support them fully and truly.
That’s Empowered Motherhood.
