I’m just an ordinary, overweight, middle-aged mother of four. Only my mom ever called me beautiful. A couple of years ago, I started taking selfies. I started finding my beauty. And an amazing thing happened: I started hearing the word beautiful.

It’s time to stop looking at the bits you hate, and start paying attention to the bits you love. After all, the people around you are noticing the good stuff. You should, too.

Selfies are terrific. Take a great picture of yourself. And remember: you’re not hiding your flaws, you’re choosing to look at your gorgeousness.

For years, I looked at photos of me that other people had taken, and I saw all kinds of horrible things about myself. But that only meant that those people were crap with a camera, not that I was ugly.

Now I take pictures of myself, and yeah, I don’t emphasize my flaws. I might use my hair to hide a blemish on my face, or a sweet angle to make my neck look thinner. But you know what? The people who love me are only seeing my beautiful parts, not the stuff I hate. And I should see the good stuff, too. A bad hair day can’t even bother me any more. See why?

In fact, flaws are part of perfection. A beautiful human told me my crooked teeth highlight what he called my perfect nose. Suddenly, I love my teeth. I can smile again. And I have reason to.

Find your reasons to smile. And if you’re having trouble locating them, I can help. Maybe you want to find your beauty, or maybe you just want a decent photo for your facebook profile pic. Another friend pointed out that I keep saying everyone is photogenic… and I realized she’s right. I do. Because everyone IS photogenic… it’s just that not everyone’s a good photographer. You’re 3D… you just don’t translate into 2D easily. Very, very few people do. Getting an accurate 2D representation of your 3D-ness is the issue here, not what’s wrong with your 3D-ness.

It’s not what’s wrong with you, it’s what’s wrong with everybody else. You don’t need to fit a mold.  You ARE the mold. You’re the only you, and that makes you pretty effing special.

I’ll take your photo, and you’ll love it, or you won’t pay for it. Maybe you want to do it privately, or maybe you want to gather a few friends and all find your beauty together. You deserve to see the beauty everyone else can already see. It’s time.