I want to start by giving you Lauren’s advice to the woman reading this who’s been thinking about booking a session for a while and hasn’t done it yet.
“Just book the damn shoot!”
That was the entirety of her answer.
She’s been on the other side and she has opinions.
How long she’d been sitting with the idea
Lauren had been thinking about a session for about two years before she actually pulled the trigger. She’d just had her third son, with it being her third c-section, and was dreading her body in photos. That’s how she put it. Dreading.
“A couple years. I had my 3rd son with it being my 3rd c-section. Was dreading my body in photos and finally just took the plunge.”
Two years of putting it off. Two years of telling herself she’d feel ready eventually, or that she’d lose the weight first, or that she’d wait until the kids were older. Two years of letting an idea live in her head without giving it a body.
A lot of the women I photograph have spent that long sitting with it too. Some longer. The decision usually doesn’t come from feeling ready. It comes from getting tired of waiting to feel ready.
What she was actually scared of
When I asked her what she was most afraid of going into the session, she was honest about it.
“Seeing myself done up trying to look confident knowing I wasn’t completely comfortable in my own body.”
That’s such a specific fear, and I think it’s one a lot of postpartum women have but don’t say out loud. The fear isn’t just “I won’t look good.” It’s “I’ll be dressed up performing confidence I don’t actually have, and the photos will catch me faking it.”
The thing about boudoir, the way I run a session at least, is that the confidence isn’t something you bring with you. You don’t need to have it in the car. It happens in the room. By the time the camera comes out, something has already started shifting, usually before the client realizes it has.
The drive over
Lauren’s answer about the drive in was just nine words.
“Incredibly nervous, anxious and excited all in one.”
I think that’s most clients. The excited part is always there underneath the nervousness, even when they can barely feel it. They wouldn’t be driving to the studio if it wasn’t.
When the shift happened
Most clients can’t tell you the exact moment something shifted for them during a session. Lauren couldn’t either, and I love that her answer was honest about it.
“I don’t really know what happened but all of a sudden I just felt beyond sexy in my own skin for the first time in years.”
For the first time in years. That’s the part I want you to read again if you skimmed it.
A woman who’d spent two years dreading her body in photos got into a room, got her hair and makeup done, started moving the way I told her to move, and at some point in the middle of all of it, felt sexy in her own skin in a way she hadn’t in years.
She gave some credit to me, which I’ll take and pass on.
“Magans words of encouragement definitely had a play in making me feel comfortable and her being very direct with how to pose my body helped tremendously.”
The being direct part is important. A lot of clients walk in expecting to be told to “just be natural” or “do whatever feels right,” and that’s the worst thing I could do for a woman who doesn’t know how she wants to look. So I tell people exactly what to do. Where to put their hand, how to tilt their head, which direction to lean. Nobody has to figure out what feels right. They just have to follow.
What surprised her about the session
The thing she mentioned wasn’t a big emotional moment. It was the music.
“As soon as I walked in she had music playing. Definitely eases the tension of all the nerves not walking into a silent room that you’re about to get half naked if not fully naked in lol.”
I have music playing before every client walks in for exactly this reason. A silent studio that you’re about to undress in is one of the most awkward physical spaces a person can imagine. Music takes that off the table before the conversation even starts.
The image that stayed with her
Most clients walk away with one image that lives in their head differently than the others. For Lauren, it was a specific one.
“A photo of me sitting on the rug tilting my head back. I was stunned when I seen this image.”
That’s the kind of reaction I always hope for at the reveal. Not “I look pretty.” But stunned. The moment when a woman doesn’t recognize herself in the photo not because the photo is heavily edited, but because she’d forgotten she actually looks like that.
Who she did it for
When I asked whether the session was for herself or someone else, she was clear about it.
“I 100% did this for myself and was and still am so thankful I went through with it.”
Sometimes clients book for a partner or for an anniversary or for a milestone someone else is involved in. Lauren didn’t. The session was hers. The photos are hers. The way she sees herself differently because of it is hers.
What’s changed since
“Magan has a way of making your see yourself as you should. She gives you this boost of confidence that I never knew I even needed.”
The “never knew I even needed” part is the part I think about a lot. Most women don’t book boudoir because they’re missing confidence. They book because they want something for themselves, and they don’t realize, until afterward, that the confidence was the actual deliverable. The photos are what you get to keep. The way you see yourself afterward is what you didn’t know you came for.
Her advice, again
Because she said it so well the first time, I want to end on Lauren’s actual closer.
“Just book the damn shoot!”
That’s it. She said it in one sentence after spending two years not booking. If anyone has the standing to tell you to go for it, it’s her.
If something in this is calling you
If you’ve been postpartum for a year, or three years, or eight years, and you’ve been dreading your body in photos, Lauren was you.
Start the booking process or learn more about the boudoir experience first.