Vanessa – Sheer Boudoir

Vanessa: Self-Love Movement

Alyx is a Bentonville boudoir photographer who believes that every body is beautiful and worthy of love. She started the Sheer Boudoir Self-Love Movement to help normalize normal bodies and to encourage women all over the Northwest Arkansas area to share their stories and journeys to self-love and acceptance. The stories shared are unique to each individual and are each woman’s own words.

Vanessa is a wife and mom – she’s been married for six years and has four kiddos. She joined the self-love movement so that she could lift other women up and encourage them to be comfortable in their bodies.

“Self-love means loving who you are – not necessarily just the way you look. Just feeling comfortable in your own skin, not caring what other people think of you.”

“I feel like I’m pretty far in my self-love journey. My oldest was born nine weeks early, so she spent a huge chunk of time in the NICU. While she was there, my dad passed away. I hit this really dark spot in my life. I basically gave up on life at that point. I didn’t want to be a mom, I didn’t want to get out of bed… I didn’t want to do anything. At one point, I finally was like, ‘I have to get up, I have to do it for her.’ I came out of that. I guess that’s kind of where [my self-love journey] started.”

“Bad things happen. I can move past them. I realized that little things really don’t matter. I think it was after I had my second child and we were still in the hospital – my thought process was, ‘How can I take care of her if I can’t take care of myself?’ Things don’t always go to plan, but that’s okay. Take it one day at a time. It’s a new day, it’s a fresh start.”