TORIE

“I’ve been involved with Jenn and her vision for a year now and I’ll be honest with you all and say that I initially joined this for selfish reasons.  I wanted to be involved with something that could make me feel beautiful.  When I first signed on I was coming out of a huge depression and bouts of gender dysphoria.  I was just getting comfortable being an out Non-Binary human but I struggled with myself worth and it’s inherit ties to my appearance. 

 

I started dressing very androgynous and masculine because that’s what was expected of me. But some days I just wanted to revel in my beauty.  I wanted to be seen as pretty and feminine but at the cost of feeling guilty and insincere in my gender.  I was raised in a woman hating household. I was taught that femininity was for the weak and useless.  So I shunned it. 

 

The biggest hurdle in coming to terms with my sexuality and gender is that like my personality; it is too much.  It is all encompassing and loud.  My gender is performative and avant-garde.  I can be Non-Binary and feminine.  I can prance around in bustles and corsets and be Not A She.  So this shoot was a celebration of that.  Of being neither and all. Of being loud and too much. Of loving myself in spite of myself. And of being exactly the person I want to be.”