to a new decade filled with radical self love and boundless creative expression 🖤 anyone who knows me knows i’ve been waiting to turn 30 for what feels like my entire 20s. entering this next decade is something that has never scared me. i’ve always felt older than i am — or maybe just put that façade on as a sort of armor — and something always felt so romantic about being 30. it felt like a time when i would be settled: comfortable in my body, empowered through my work, surrounded by constant love and support. though i will never stop being a work in progress, i can say with (cautious) certainty that, today, on my 30th birthday, all those things are true. as i’ve gotten older, life has only proven to me time and time again how much of a privilege it is to age. with those years comes experience, and with that experience, comes a self-assurance i never would have gained otherwise. i’ve been sitting on these photos for almost 2 years and couldn’t figure out why i didn’t want to post them. but as i reflected on them this week, i realized i wasn’t ready to post them because i wasn’t *her* yet. in brainstorming this shoot, i came in with a concept of a powerful woman who had fully embraced every aspect of herself. and though the photos came out exactly the way i wanted them to, i didn’t see myself at that time in the pictures. so they got tucked away in a folder on my phone for a couple years, until i finally revisited them a more evolved — though still *evolving* — version of the woman in the photos. maybe @aaronjayyoung saw something through his lens that i didn’t see in myself yet, and i’m so glad he did. i am constantly learning new things about myself and the people and world around me, and for that, i am so grateful. life would be really boring if i stopped learning things. the virtues that hold the highest value in my eyes, how to more effectively communicate both personally and professionally, gracefully handling adversity without masking my vulnerability... all of these things have come to me in just the last year alone, and i’m sure it won’t stop any time soon. this is 30. thanks for sharing it with me.