Hello to all our lovely blog readers, it’s John here today! As the CEO and photographer at Divers Photography, I wanted to write a post to address a common phrase I hear all too often, “I’m too ugly to have a makeover shoot, i’d break your camera.” I can guarantee that 99% of the ladies that we speak to on a daily basis – from children to women, utter this phrase at some point of our conversation, and it really is so heartbreaking to hear. Did you know that according to research by Dove*, only 4% of women around the world consider themselves beautiful? Anxiety about appearance sadly begins at an early age – 6 out of 10 girls are so concerned with the way they look that they miss out on everyday life because they feel too self-conscious to even leave their own homes. Shocking but true, our world has become so accustomed to feeling inadequate that we truly believe we aren’t even worthy of keeping our heads held up as we walk down the street, never mind having a beauty makeover shoot and re-affirming our inner beauty.

Our company is made up of three people: my wife Sue, my daughter, Rachael, and I. I am the only male in the company, and sometimes it’s hard living and working with two women! I hear first hand about the insecurities, “I’m too fat to wear this dress. My hair looks horrible. I look so old. I wish I could have surgery on my eyelids” each and every day. But do you know what? I don’t see these ‘flaws’ at all. To me, every woman has something special about her, and every woman has something beautiful. Be it a gorgeous smile, sparkling eyes full of laughter and fun, or an endearing soul. It’s so sad to us all as a company that girls as young as 6 already have a pre-conceived idea of exactly how they should look according to society, and that they constantly compare themselves to their peers.

As a family, we understand what it is to go through low self-esteem and lack of confidence. Rachael was badly bullied in school for having red hair, something she is now envied for. She was bullied because her red hair made her different, but now, her hair makes her unique. When we first started our journey of being makeover photographers, we wanted to understand just how our new clients felt when they visited us for the first time, so together, we booked our very own family makeover photo shoot in Manchester. From the anxiety on the journey, the nerves about how our hair and makeup would look, the stage fright in front of the photographer and the worry about how the images would turn out afterwards, we had a good helping of low self-confidence indeed. From that experience, we realised exactly what we needed to do within our own business to help our clients feel completely at ease and allow their barriers to tumble down so we could get that winning shot that captured not only their beautiful smiles, but their beautiful souls too.

We believe that every girl, teenager and woman should feel beautiful each and every day of their lives, and that it should not only be a fleeting feeling, but one of conviction that lasts forever. And we fully believe that we should be teaching our children to love their bodies, their hearts and their souls from a young age, so that when they do grow up, they will be full of confidence, conviction and have a zest for life that’s out of this world, not feeling that they are being judged every time they walk outside their doors.

*We wanted to write this post to draw your attention to the Dove Self-Esteem Project that helps young girls aged seven to 17 on issues relating to self-esteem and body confidence – we have not been sponsored to write this post, we just strongly agree with their ethos and want to support them on their journey in helping them to empower not only young girls, but women too.