1989

I was eight when I was regularly taunted for my glasses, frizzy hair, buck teeth, & chicken legs, but for some reason chose to send a friend to ask if my crush liked me back anyway. She returned with his answer: "He said he stares at you because you're so ugly."

The girl nobody liked or chose at recess. That was the identity I carried for two decades. I felt so ugly that no men ever approached. My first date wasn't until I was 26.

the girl who felt invisible

2011

In 2010 I was a fashion photographer; always behind the camera, never in front of it. One day I decided to step in front. I sat in the hair & makeup chair in full glam. When I finally turned to the mirror, everything changed.

The woman looking back was stunning. For the first time in my life, I thought: I am beautiful.

Twenty years of believing otherwise dissolved in an afternoon. That was the day I discovered I could be a model (today I'm with Brown Agency) and the day the idea for Whisper & Vow was born. That feeling of being beautiful is what every session I create exists to give my clients.

from ugly duckling to swan

2015

Eventually, I realized I no longer wanted to be a fashion photographer. I wanted to give the same life-changing experience I had to everyday women vs. models, so I created Beautiful You Studios.

The first everyday woman was Lisa, a single mother of four who had survived two marriages to men who told her she was fat & ugly. She arrived and said, "I feel beautiful when there are no mirrors around." I didn't know what to do other than get to work. When I handed her the mirror after hair & makeup, her shoulders lifted.

At her reveal, everyone gasped: "Wait, that's YOU?" Lisa cried tears of joy, and I stood in the back with one thought on repeat:

Helping women feel beautiful is what I was created to do.

the woman who became my why

2024

By 2024, I had refined my process into a systematic approach for creating transformative confidence-boosting experiences. One client described the impact this way:

“Doing this was an amazing confidence boost. It was probably better than three years of therapy, and it was done in just three hours.”- Michelle

better than therapy

my story