Editorial: Selfloveserie, By Amandine Grulois

The story behind this beautiful soul: " Self-love is something I have struggled with throughout my life. No one, even people closest to me don't know that since my childhood I had a hard time accepting myself. I had several complexes and they only increased in recent vears.

I constantlv compared myself to the female beauty seen on social media. This never out of a sense of jealousy, but rather a feeling of "not being enough". Over the years, people sometimes said hurtful things to me, words they said but perhaps didn't realize what an impact this had on my mental health.

For years I told myself: "my boobs are too small, my lips are too thin, I'm not tall enough, there is too much fat on my belly, I have ugly stretch marks and cellulite on my butt, ... every time I looked in the mirror I felt unhappy and insecure. I felt that the feeling of not being enough was effecting my life. So I decided to talk about it with my psychologist. This photo shoot is a form of therapy. I would like to thank @amandine.grulois for representing my story so naturally and purely. Because there is a story in all of us.

This is not a post to create self-pity. It's a shout out to anyone struggling with self-love. And

Here's what I've learned:

Embrace yourself as you are. Try to love your body. Let the scars, stretch marks, cellulite and all the other things you are insecure about be a part of your body. Embrace them with love and try to accept them. It makes you, you.

This self-love does not come overnight. It is something you work on day by day, step by step. And above all, remember: don't allow anyone to tell you that you are not good enough. Guard your boundaries. Remove negativity and people who make you feel insecure from life. Don't give any other person the power to start doubting yourself. Look at yourself in the mirror with a loving eye and see how you are growing as a person. Don't give anyone the power to lose yourself, including your thoughts. Be kind to others and take care of what you say. Words can float around in someone's mind for years. But the biggest lesson is: be kind to yourself baby.".

Demi - Ghent 2022

Photographer: Amandine Grulois

https://www.instagram.com/amandine.grulois

Model: Démi Vyncke

https://www.instagram.com/demivyncke