ashley hall

Wonder

From a recent shoot at Ashley Hall School in Charleston, SC.

From a recent shoot at Ashley Hall School in Charleston, SC.

Never lose your sense of wonder, little one. Don't stop learning or dreaming or thinking about things - little bugs and big trees. Never forget to be curious about life, about the stars, about how this world actually goes on - day after day, year after year, producing more life and more variety than we can even imagine or see with our own eyes.

But, little one... never be the person who has to know all the answers. You don't. You don't have to know everything. Nobody does. After all, there is a freedom to not knowing things.

There is freedom in the wonder of it all.

Girls

From my shoot yesterday at Ashley Hall School.

From my shoot yesterday at Ashley Hall School.

Look at you girls.

Confident. Strong. Able. Smart. Believing in yourselves. You seem joyful and full of heart.

My wish for you is this: remember this moment. When I captured you, you didn't seem worried about your hair. You weren't thinking about your thighs. You were happy and free and light. You were using your bodies to run and jump and stretch. You were using your minds to think and solve and create. You were using your hands to touch and make and feel.

In a few years, you will compare yourselves to the others around you. You will look at people and think they have it made. You will wonder why you never measure up. You will look at yourself in the mirror and question if you are enough for this big, scary, crazy, judgmental world.

STOP.

Don't do this.

Remember your shining face. Look at how gleeful you are. Beautiful, open, and full of heart.

That's where your value is. This is your happy place.

So go out there. Run. Play. Think. Create. Feel. Because on the inside, this is who you will always be. A carefree spirit with walls that have yet to be built. Only a foundation of strength and courage.