4 months ago, I opened up my schedule to everyone on social media to book a 30-minute block with me on Wednesdays, Saturdays, & Sundays to do two things: 

1. Get a portrait taken by me
2. Answer the question “what do you love most about your body”

Now 42 participants later, here are 42 portraits and answers from 42 beautiful, everyday people.

What I love most about my body is…
that I am the fittest/strongest I’ve ever been at the age of 57 years.
– Joyce

What I love most about my body is…
that at my age I have no major health issues, I’m active and young-minded…so I love all of me but especially my eyes and natural gray hair.
– Lavona

What I love most about my body is…
my hair.
– Sienna

What I love most about my body is…
Oddly enough, my face! Growing up I always detested the fact that I am basically my father’s carbon copy. To say I was self-conscious of my facial features (especially my face shape) would be putting it lightly, but in the last few years, I’ve grown appreciative of the fact that I’m my dad’s twin! I’m a proud daughter!
– Altynay

What I love most about my body is…
that it has carried me through all the celebrations and struggles of life
– Hailey

What I love most about my body is…
my legs.
– Jenny

What I love most about my body is…
my strong legs.
– Kailey

What I love most about my body is…
my quads!
– Andrew

What I love most about my body is…
my thighs!
– Fabiola

What I love most about my body is…
my petite frame.
– Kandice

What I love most about my body is…
My weight because I grew up underweight and was constantly bullied for it.
– Priscilla

What I love most about my body is…
I love how I am naturally thick on the lower half of my body. And how I can express who I am as a person.
– Keosopheap

What I love most about my body is…
I like my size and height. I’m under 5ft and I feel like there are more pros than cons! For example, I can fit myself in an economy seat on the plane comfortably. But also being a small girl is very convenient. You preserve more battery life on a scooter, you fit into anything, so you get to see life from a unique perspective. Friends will always treat you like a baby and you get to be the whiny baby of the group 🙂
– Chloe

What I love most about my body is…
how healthy it looks.
– Maxine

What I love most about my body is…
My asthmatic lungs! One of the many physical reminders of my start as a preemie.
– Michelle

What I love most about my body is…
my body’s ability to heal itself when given the appropriate tools. I used to have horrible eczema and my parents were terrified that I’d end up with scarred, blotchy skin on my face and all over my body. I spent my childhood up to my 20s being the ugly duckling who couldn’t wear make-up and was overweight and “ugly.” Then I gave myself what I needed to heal and became the person I always knew I was meant to be. Because of that, my feet are what I loved most about my body.
– Rebecca

What I love most about my body is…
my eyes.
– Shaina

What I love most about my body is…
my eye shape.
– Jingwen

What I love most about my body is…
I love my eyes. I feel like they say so much without me having to say anything at all. They change colors with how I’m feeling, and make me feel more unique with the different colors. They’ve seen so many things in life, and have so many more things to see.
– Christine

What I love most about my body is…
definitely my eyes because I got them from my mom.
– Sarah

What I love most about my body is…
my blue eyes.
– Marissa

What I love most about my body is…
I love my smile the most. When I’m genuinely happy my whole face and body smile with it.
– Shaun

What I love most about my body is…
my smile.
– Bethany

What I love most about my body is…
my smile.
– Kieu

What I love most about my body is…
my teeth and smile.
– Elizabeth

What I love most about my body is…
the freckles on my face.
– Monica

What I love most about my body is…
I love my red hair and fair skin. When I was a young girl, I hated these two parts of myself. I longed to sunbathe to a golden crisp like my friends. My hair was the subject of many jokes. As I’ve gotten older, I appreciate my healthy skin that is as such because I slathered sunblock. I have come to love the uniqueness of my red hair and celebrate the label “fair-skinned redhead.”
– Marissa

What I love most about my body is…
My hands! As I was reading about this project I totally had the same reaction of starting the process of elimination to figure this out I took a moment to think about what makes me feel beautiful or proud – I realized it’s my hands. They get to touch and bring confidence to so many people through my work. My hands have met and worked on so many wonderful people from all different walks of life, making them smile and feel beautiful themselves and THAT’S what I love most about them.
– April

What I love most about my body is…
my hands.
– Sean

What I love most about my body is…
my hands.
– Annie

What I love most about my body is…
the way my body moves and responds to the rhythms created around me–how my hips dance, my smile enchants, and my hair flows with energy.
– Suhaila

What I love most about my body is…
I love the fact that I was able to give birth to my daughter. Of course, I’m not as thin or fit as I’d like to be but this is the body that birthed my daughter 4 years ago and this is the body that will carry my future children. My stomach isn’t flat but I’m appreciative of it and my hips that had widened due to pregnancy/childbirth.
– Alana

What I love most about my body is…
my nose.
– Alex

What I love most about my body is…
my nose.
– Alex

What I love most about my body is…
my collarbones.
– Star

What I love most about my body is…
Decolletage.
– Surbhi

What I love most about my body is…
my neck and collarbones.
– Sophia

What I love most about my body is…
the tiny muscles on my face.
– Denise

What I love most about my body is…
my skin.
– Yamah

What I love most about my body is…
My shoulders. I am an adoptive mother of 5, wife, sister, daughter, and friend. I have one child with severe special needs and another with behavioral health challenges. My shoulders carry the weight of the world some days, often are sore, but look strong. Exactly how I try to carry myself.
– Jencie

Body image is something I have struggled with for 15 years. This is over half of my existence. What I love most about my body is its capability. I can move it, communicate with it, get creative with it, and strengthen it. My body is more than what others see externally. Although some days are better than others, I am learning to honor it.
– Rachel

What I love most about my body is…
I love how I have my mom’s cheeks, they scrunch up when I smile 🙂
– Amanda

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Closing Remarks
It was truly an amazing experience for me as I got to meet so many people from different walks of life. It humbled me to see different ages, body shapes, and clothing styles, all come together to answer one question.

My goal for this project was to spark a new conversation. More often than not, I hear peers talk about what they don’t like about their bodies and when I do hear something positive, it’s about another person.

I grew up in countries outside of the US (Hong Kong and Korea) with very different beauty standards where I was taught what kind of bodies were acceptable. Then I came to the US 6 years ago and surprised to find so much awareness and liberation from these beauty standards. It’s okay to love something about our bodies regardless of what the next person thinks – and I feel this was a way to celebrate that.

Thank you to all the bold and beautiful people that participated in sparking this conversation! And to everyone else, I challenge you to ask you and your friends “what do you love most about your body?” Post a picture on IG with your answer and the hashtag #dspbodylove!

The Context: What do you love most about your body?

I was asking this question to friends around me as a social experiment until one of them turned the question around.

I can’t even describe the mixed emotions I was having as a reaction to the question. It was like I was looking for a needle in a haystack frantically wondering why this is so hard to answer.

I had to do a process of elimination to cross off what I didn’t like to reach a lackluster answer of “my nose.”

This is when I finally realized why it took my friends so long to answer the question for themselves.

That is the context of this personal project that I’m starting up. It’s so easy to talk about what we don’t like about ourselves and I want to start promoting the idea of what we actually like about ourselves.

The What, When, How, Where, and Who.

What: I’ll be photographing 50~100 people and finding out what they love most about their bodies. The final form of this project will possibly in the form of a video, an album, a blog, or all of them.

Who: This is open to everyone of any age, gender, and race.

How: There’s an online scheduler below where you can pick between Wed, Sat, or Sunday for a 30-minute shoot with me. The style and clothing, we’ll decide over a phone call or text.

When: You pick your convenient time!

Where: This is going to be flexible. I’m going to look at your answer, text or call you, and pick a location (studio or outdoor) that I want to photograph you in!

Requirement & Details

Requirement: Answer the question, be flexible, trust my creative process, and be confident about sharing your photo and answer to the world.

What you’re receiving: Any portrait I edit for the project.

Let’s Do It!

This is a first come first serve basis so if you’re interested, get signed up below!