Outfits | Metamorphosis

Girl in the Lens


METAMORPHOSIS


0W8C1166 0W8C1333


dress: ASOS


I usually keep this blog fairly light on personal thoughts and feelings. I prefer to let Callum’s beautiful photos take centre stage, and am genuinely surprised (and pleased!) when some of you make references to what I wrote in the post in your comments – thank you for reading my silly waffling! I think a part of it is also wanting to create a space for you all to enjoy which is a little abstracted from the daily grind of life and just let you dream away whilst looking at the photos. But from your comments and the conversations I have with you guys on Twitter and Instagram, I realise that you do like to hear little details about my life. That you’re interested in my thoughts on everything from fashion to work to love, and it’s something so special that I get to share my world with you all, why wouldn’t I allow a more personal insight?

So today’s post is something a little different to celebrate that. It’s on a topic I think all of us females can relate to, that we all have our own intimate ideas and thoughts on – femininity. I was challenged by Thierry Mugler to embrace the ethos of the designer’s iconic blue-bottled fragrance Angel and their #BewareofAngels campaign to explore the concept of femininity and reveal what gives me the strength and confidence to be the woman I am today. These are just my own personal thoughts, but I hope there’s something in them that each of you can relate to – even my lovely male readers! – because ultimately for me, being feminine is more about just owning who you are, and making up your own rules for living and happiness. What ‘being a woman’ means has changed so much over the years. I am so, so grateful to be living in an age (and location) where there is a much broader definition of the term than ever before. In fact, should there even be a definition anymore? Today, we as women are lucky to mostly be able to take charge of our own lives, to really choose how we see ourselves and live our lives, and if there is a definition of femininity – it is our own to create individually.

Recently I underwent a metamorphosis of my own. I got over thirteen inches of my hair cut off to donate to the Little Princess Trust, a wonderful British charity who make custom wigs for children suffering from hair-loss due through cancer treatment. When I think about what makes me feel feminine and full of confidence, my hair has always played a big part, especially when it was long. It’s been a booster for me to let my hair flow long and loose. But when I heard about the Little Princess Trust, and thought more about how there were young girls and boys out there who don’t have hair of their own to enjoy the simple pleasure of the feeling of wind in their hair, or are losing confidence because of how they look, I knew I had to cut off my hair – the source of so much of my own confidence – and donate it to the much better cause of making an amazing little girl of boy out there smile.

Of course it wasn’t entirely selfless – I did need a cut, and wanted to try a shorter look – but I asked my hairdresser Vicky at Myla and Davis (more on those lovely lot another time) to take far more off than I had initially planned, just to be sure to meet the Little Princess Trust’s donation requirements. And as soon as the cut was made – you can see the exact moment here on my Instagram! – it was as though this amazing weight was lifted. A weight I didn’t even know I was carrying. It was a true moment of metamorphosis, where I fully comprehended that the confidence and happiness I feel as a woman, a big part of which I thought was my long hair, was actually something smaller, and more infinite, and will always be inside me no matter what my outer self looks like.

Because to me, that’s what it means to be feminine: a security, a happiness in our cores that enables us to go out and face the world with a smile. It’s whatever you draw your own confidence from – the attributes and personal memories that make you you – and allow you to embrace all the individual little aspects of yourself and say this is who I am, world, and I’m ready to conquer you in my own way. The #BewareofAngels campaign is all about celebrating these differences and building a new, expanded definition of femininity. To be a part of it, visit the Thierry Mugler Facebook and Twitter pages to get sharing the things that make you feel feminine. Let’s spread some positive messages about the individual beauty of what ‘being a woman’ means to each of us! x

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