The Story Of You - Lisa

Content Warning: These stories contain mentions of body dysmorphia, body image struggles, pregnancy loss, fertility struggles and gendered violence. If you find any of the below triggering, please find a list of helpful and free resources below:

DV/SV: 1800 RESPECT

Mental Health: https://www.beyondblue.org.au/

Eating Disorders and Body Image Issues: Butterfly Foundation 1800 ED HOPE

When Lisa is at the Crooked studio you can hear laughter and joy echoing throughout the whole building.

At 40, Lisa is joy, she is energy, she is proof that a body can carry fire and softness all at once. She walked into the studio on a mission, to finally step out of her head and into her body and what unfolded was nothing short of magic.

Her story is not one you hear every day. Menopause came for her at just 21, following a cancer diagnosis and hysterectomy that changed the course of her life overnight. For almost two decades, she carried the weight of feeling “different,” watching the world talk about motherhood as the ultimate marker of womanhood while she wrestled with the question of what it meant to be one at all. For years she searched for others who could understand, and found silence.

But when she came to Crooked, she came ready. Nervous, yes (“shit scared and excited all at once,” in her words) but ready. Ready to be seen. Ready to take up space. Ready to capture the woman she knows herself to be.

There was a moment in front of the mirror where everything stilled. She looked at herself without the usual inner critic shouting back, and it felt like seeing herself for the first time. Then came the moment she stripped fully naked. Instead of fear, what came was freedom, a shift she could feel in her bones. “I could have stayed shooting for the rest of the day after that,” she laughed.

Her viewing was nothing short of a celebration. She saw what she had dreamed of: her inner self reflected back on the outside. Her words when she saw them? A big, resounding: “FUCK YES.”

She leaves with confidence, feeling more alive, more herself, and images that will carry her through the harder days. And for us, that is everything. 

Thank you for making us forget we’re at work, and for letting us be part of your journey back to yourself.