Raise your hand if you hate having your photo taken! 

Same, same. Well, I USED TO HATE it! I’d get photos back (because I’m old and you used to have to wait until they were developed…remember that? We had to wait a WHOLE HOUR! Hahaha!

Then I would quickly thumb through them and think, “No. no. No, Hell no! Uh-uh.” And so on until I decided that there wasn’t a single photo of me that was worthy in the bunch.

Now it’s digital so you don’t have to wait as long to berate yourself. You can instantly look at your photos and start hating away! 

If this sounds like you, PLEASE read this! It’s dedicated to you. And I want you to really try to listen with an open mind and an open heart. That sounds so cheesy, but it’s true.

It’s really easy to just hear this stuff and then forget about it and go on about your life. I mean, how bad is it REALLY not to exist in photos?

It’s bad.

Some things to think about…

What if you lost all of your photos?

Let me put it into perspective. How devastated would you be if something happened to your phone or your hard drive and you lost every photo that you have of your kid? Or your pet? Or your family?

Really think about it for a second. You lost all the photos of them. Gone. They don’t exist and you can’t get them back.

That’s how your family and friends feel now. They don’t have any photos of you, because you’re not taking them. Not because their harddrive broke. But because you’re so hard on yourself that you don’t want to be in front of the camera. 

When you lose someone you love, you cherish those memories and those photographs. Who won’t have any photos of you when you’re gone? 

I feel like it’s not fair that you get to have photos of everyone in your life while simultaneously depriving them of photos of you. Not cool. Not cool at all.

Your kids are watching and listening to you

Also, I just want you to be aware that your kids pick up on this. You might not think they do, but they do. They’ll notice if you say “ew” when you look at a photo of yourself.

They might not mention it, but if you do it enough, they’ll notice. 

Or if you’ve ever told the photographer, “Just the kids for this shoot. I hate being in photos.” Or “Maybe when I lose some weight” Or, “I’m not ready, I look a hot mess today.” 

Your kids are noticing those comments. And imagine how happy they’d be to have you in the photo. Some kids are a little nervous to have their photo taken in the first place. And a lot of them have to do it alone because there’s no way mamas gettin’ in there too.

It’s sad y’all.

Who’s telling you that you’re not good enough to be photographed?

Who is the actual person? Is it your partner? Your friend?

Is your friend like, “Actually, can you step to the side, you’re going to ruin this group photo if you’re in it.” 

GEEEZ…I hope not! If they are, you gotta get a new friend ASAP!

So, I’ll ask again, who’s telling you that you aren’t good enough?

It’s probably you. Isn’t that crazy? 

So why are you doing that? Probably because of all the bullshit messages we get from society. But you get to decide what you do with those messages. 

Are you going to delete those messages, or print them out and frame them and let them take up space in your life?

Are they messages worth keeping?

Maybe start deleting those messages and KEEPING the photos of YOU on your phone?

So what can you do about it?

Well, here’s what I think… Just do it.

I know…I know…how simple.  You just have to do it. 

And then you have to look at the photo and STOP BEING MEAN TO YOURSELF!

Your next step:

This holiday season so many memories will be made. So many photos will be taken. Please, I’m beggin you… be in them. 

Not just for your family. But for yourself.

And to honor your life and your story and your memories. You are worth it.

And it will be the best present you can give to your family this year.

Now go be in a damn photo!

The Family Stone…

I also chat about one of my favorite movies (yes…it’s a Holiday movie) called The Family Stone. You should check it out if you haven’t seen it. And push play on the episode above if you wanna know how my crazy brain connected it to this topic. xo