This Lovely creative is Irene Luna. She attended my Dazey Lady event, and approached me asking to shoot! I thought she had such a unique and striking look; I couldn't say no. I think all the girls I shoot are beautiful and wonderful, but frankly I'm getting a little bored of always shooting your standard blonde California girl. Irene was different, and it was refreshing. Dazey is all about celebrating and empowering ALL women. When we met up to shoot I was delighted with how smart, funny, and confident this 20-year-old girl was. I asked her to write a piece for the new Dazey Zine and she KILLED IT!!! Read her amazing story below, and check out the magical shots we got.

Not your stereotype by Irene Luna:

From the moment my grade school teacher handed my class and I a box to decorate for back too school night, I knew one thing: I wanted my box to stand out, to be different. When people liked blue, I wanted red. When polka dots were in, I was into stripes. When the world was watching this, I was reading that. To me, standing out in a sea of very pretty fish, is by far the most intriguing opportunity. Not to say it was ever an easy option, not in the slightest. (read more below)

SHOP THE TOPS HERE

I always knew I wanted to be a performer, I grew up in theater, and in dance. Undoubtedly, the stage is my first love, and acting my dire passion. I can't exactly pin point the reason that I love being in front of an audience, but I just feel right when I'm in that “all eyes on you” position. So naturally being in front of the little eye of a camera came as a part of that deal. To be completely honest, I never saw myself as the “model type”, therefore I never really thought modeling was for me. I do not have a perfect taut figure (my thighs love each other too much), and I’m a brown haired, brown skinned Hispanic, far from what I grew up thinking a model was. In fact, growing up, being a model to me meant being in the secret society of perfection. Given such an ethnic background and lack of tiny waist genes, I very well knew I could not and would not be able to afford that membership. 

But like I said, I have always embraced my desire to stand out. It has successfully pushed me to strive toward being the odd one out, learning to love myself and the unique qualities of not only myself, but of every person I come across. It hasn't always been easy breezy cheesy toast, of course not. I can't say it's exactly pleasant or easy to be standing in a room full of beautiful girls similar in many ways to one another, while you stand with more resemblance to the chair in the corner than any of them. (continued below)

A healthy, positive, ambitious mindset is a very big part of having the ability to do what you want to do. Deciding to feel good about you, is what makes you feel good about you. Not the approval or fondness of people whom you don't know, if we were to let that dictate where our lives were going we wouldn't get to enjoy the world and the ridiculously awesome experiences it has to offer. And relinquishing those joys of life is not in the cards for this gal. 

I see not being the stereo typical model, as a great opportunity to represent the color of the world, because really if all fish were blue I'm sure we wouldn't be so intrigued with the sea. I know there is beauty in every face, ethnicity, and proximity of our thighs. Being different, and ‘not looking like everyone else’ is now a pretty trendy thing, and it’s quite a lot of fun to be apart of a generation that has such a rad outlook. 

Knowing that the confidence that everyone is able to bring to their own looks, craft, and passions is what is most important. Not being the stereo type, and embracing the things that make you different to the standard, is what adds so much color to the world, gives us all more reasons to connect with one another, and even more reasons to enjoy and strive on this cool little rock we live on.

Xx- Irene Luna