these last few days, i have been reflecting on why it felt important and liberating to partake in the @skims campaign. the reasoning harks back to my feelings about participating in the @equinox campaign and all of @lastcutproject for that matter. when i had my preventive double mastectomy in 2008, the conversation around what to do next was incredibly heteronormative and slanted towards how a body should look or feel based on the male gaze. no one presented the option of being flat. Ironically, how i look now was the default for years for individuals who experienced breast cancer, and then those people were told to stuff a bra with knit prosthesis, or to hide their flat chests. the perceived scarlet letter on a homogenized (and assumed) female body. the projected brokenness of scars or difference. the decision i made in 2016 to remove my implants was a reclamation of my own body and spirit. yes, i was sick from the implants. more importantly though, i did not feel at home in that body. there was a major disconnect. up until i started last cut project, and still in some areas of my life, i have historically been a very private person. however, when it came to sharing images and words around my reclaimed self, i have wanted to scream or project it from the rooftops. shame corrodes us. it breaks us down and makes us feel as if we are less than, broken and unworthy. hiding parts of ourselves prevents us from showing up fully in our lives. none of us are the same, and what makes us most lovable are these differences (internally and externally). so, these opportunities, with @skims and otherwise, to strip it down and bare it all—figuratively or literally—are the possibility of showing first and foremost myself and then my daughter and whoever else may want the reminder that there is power and liberation in owning who we are. why does uniqueness get framed as rebellion? difference as defiance? those beliefs are backwards. we are lovable because of who we are, not what we aren’t. images by @lisafield12 for @lastcutproject