Look who’s on the cover of Thoughtfully Magazine this summer.

Zero photoshop, fresh from the beach with salty hair, still wearing my bikini under my dress (that I bought at a market in Mexico and that’s a little frayed around the seams but you can’t tell). There was no artificial lighting, no big setup, no props used for this shoot and no one directing me telling me to pull in this or elongate that.

Just a moment where the sun happened to come out from behind the clouds in that magical, glowing way and my body felt like twisting just like this and I’m smiling because it felt wonderful and not because I had to. Nothing else.

This is how we do all of our shoots! Unscripted. Happy. Real.

I wish more magazines had the courage to use real, natural, undirected shots for their covers.

It doesn’t have to be all about sex and makeup and perfection.

Same goes for social media—nothing inspires like raw, human emotion.

~

Author: Rachel Brathen

Editor: Katarina Tavčar

Photo: cover of Thoughtfully magazine