What is the Kid’s Confidence Campaign?

In the mid-year school holidays, I wanted to do something that has been on my mind for a while. It was the Kid’s Confidence Campaign.

Designed to have young people visit the studio for photoshoots that would be full of fun, encouragement and a chance to be in the spotlight.

The main goals of the Kid’s Confidence Campaign were to help increase self-esteem, to create love of oneself, and to showcase how beautiful and individual we are.

In a society with increasing pressure amongst young people, endless social media accounts to keep up with, and content so shareable it can go viral in minutes. Kid’s these days have a lot to keep up with, and I wanted to give them a chance to put themselves in the spotlight, without being judged.

And so I launched the Kid’s Confidence Campaign to encourage these guys to jump into something that might be a little scary, but sure was rewarding!

Meet Ishi, 14 years old.

Ishi greeted me with a smile at her pre-shoot style and concept consultation. She had already pre-picked out some of her favourite outfits to show me for her session and was excited to show me an amazing posted from an advertising campaign she had been a part of when she was younger (and it was awesome!).

At age 14, Ishi is mature beyond her years. Incredibly polite, caring and professional. 

In front of the camera, she took direction well and allowed herself to have fun, have a laugh, and let go. While she started out feeling nervous, I think she quickly realised that the studio is a safe environment, that she looked amazing, and she was, absolutely rocking the shoot.

My favourite things about working with Ishi:

What I loved about working with Ishi was her positive attitude. As soon as she arrived, she had this big, beaming smile, and was dressed in her first outfit ready to go.

She was trusting, calm and open to direction. Her laugh was infectious, and she wasn’t afraid to try new poses and different outfits. 

I think my favourite part of all of these sessions is seeing the reactions to the images we take. Both Ishi and her Mum had great smiles on their faces as we flipped through them on the laptop, and it really warms my heart. 

Ishi’s Final Images:

For Ishi’s final images, she picked her favourite shot to be featured on a spectacular Acrylic desk print. These are one of my favourite ways to display images on a tabletop/surface/desk. 

She also had two accompanying prints that she can easily frame herself. In all of them, we get to see Ishi’s sweetness shine through. From subtle smiles to relaxed poses. I adore these images, and I’m sure they are something that will become precious to her as she grows older. 

Let’s have a look at how Ishi felt about her experience. 

When asking Ishi some of the things she loves about herself, she responded with: her kindness, her eyelashes and her hair.

It’s so important that we consciously think about the things we love about ourselves. It can be so easy to focus on things that seem negative, and sometimes we even feel like we’re being ‘vain’ if we do point out our awesomeness.

But Ishi was spot on. Her kindness radiates out of her! She does have amazing eyelashes, and such beautiful, shiny, long, gorgeous hair!

While some things made Ishi unsure about her appearance (we all have these things), she did tell me that after seeing her images she felt much more relaxed and positive about these things and that she did feel more confident too.

Go, Ishi! You deserve to feel beautiful because you are!

How Ishi felt about her photoshoot:

Having a great experience during a photo shoot is all going to come back to how a person was feeling during the process. 

“I felt really comfortable and the shoot was fun“, Ishi said.

When asking her what she liked most about the images we captured together, her response was her smile. Which was the same answer her Mum gave me too, as well as her hair!

Can a professional photoshoot help increase confidence and self-worth?

Everyone is going to have a different feeling towards this, and it’s one thing I was most interested in observing through this campaign.

For me, personally, photography gave me a way to accept and love things about myself that I once thought were flaws.

For Ishi, I asked her if she thought a professional photography shoot has built her confidence, and she confirmed it did. It made her feel more secure about the things she was uncertain with.

Furthermore, Ishi said that if another child or teenager was unsure about if a professional photoshoot could help them, she said

“Most of the insecurities they have will be gone once they look at the photos after the shoot. Which will help them like themselves even more. So yes a professional photoshoot really helps.”

Let’s have a look at how Ishi’s photoshoot went with a behind the scenes video:

There’s no better way than to sum up a photoshoot than with a behind the scenes video! These clips were taken during our session, to document the experience and showcase to Ishi how amazing she is. We got to watch this together at her photo reveal, which was amazing too!