Blogger Brilliantly Rethinks “Before” and “After” Photos

Blogger, photographer and mother Taryn Brumfitt is recalibrating what “before” and “after” photos should look like.

Brumfitt, a photographer from Australia, had a hard time reconciling her body after having three children.

“So many changes occur to a woman’s body during pregnancy and after birth and yet society and the media glosses over all the (literally) sh*tty stuff and feeds us the unicorns and fairytale version of motherhood and parenting,” Brumfitt wrote in an essay for the Huffington Post.

She even considered going the plastic surgery route to fix her body issues, mulling a tummy tuck and breast lift.  But then, she thought of her daughter Mikaela.

“How am I ever going to teach Mikaela to love her body as it is if her Mummy can’t do the same?” Brumfitt wrote on her website. “How am I ever going to encourage her to accept and love the parts of her body that she doesn’t like without being a walking contradiction?”

So instead, Brumfitt decided to launch a campaign redefining what “before and after” photos should look like. So she posted a photo on Facebook that compared herself as a young woman in a bikini as the “Before” and herself nude post-birth as “After.”

“Because heaven forbid a woman love her body after,” she wrote.

The positive response to Brumfitt’s campaign was overwhelming. Her picture soon went viral, shared by users on Twitter and Facebook. Though some argued that Brumfitt was contributing to the obesity epidemic with her campaign, most of the reactions applauded her work.

“Very brave,” one commenter wrote. “Good on you Taryn for promoting good body image thinking.”

“I feel so much better now about my body,” another commenter wrote.

Now, Brumfitt has launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund a new documentary, “EMBRACE,” encouraging women to, yes, embrace their “after” bodies through her Body Image Movement campaign. She’s looking for about $200,000 to help with production

The film will focus both on how Brumfitt came to love her body and “will explore why body loathing has become a global epidemic and what we can do to create a brighter future for women everywhere.”

“Women and girls are constantly held back and lead to believe they’re not as good as they should be,” she wrote. “Why? Because every day we feel we’re being judged on our appearance and how far away it is from an unachievable ideal.”

Image via bodyimagemovement.com