Be the person you needed when you were younger...

Being the Pinterest obsessed teen and adult I am, I've had a few quotes throughout the years that resonated a lot with me. "Be the person you needed when you were younger" was one I heard a lot that particularly resonated. Thats not to say I didn't have a ton of people that I looked up to when I was a kid, but specifically around my identity and sexuality I could have used more representation.

I think back to when I was 17-18 and questioning, it was 2014-2015 and queer relationships were just starting to be shown in the media, but for the longest time the only well known lesbian was Ellen.

I think part of the reason why I love photographing queer couples and queer joy, is because it is so underrepresented. On a base level, I love to see queer love and joy, how can you hate something so pure. But also, I think I never saw it when I was younger. It was so hard to imagine myself in a happy queer relationship because it just wasn't something I ever saw.

Cut to now, I'm proud to be able to not only be out and proud, but also be creating the representation I would have benefited from seeing when I was younger.