My name is Kate Dearman. I’m a storyteller and brand strategist based in Nashville. I started the platform In Her Image in January 2021 after spending years looking for a way to use my gifts to help women with body image issues. Our mission is to provide tools and resources to women of all ages to help them develop healthier relationships with their bodies.
The original idea for In Her Image was born after I completed an experiment of photographing myself every day until I made a portrait I loved. All those moments spent alone with my camera, exploring
how I defined my worth taught me countless lessons. Most importantly, I realized that none of the ideas I had about my body were true. None of the standards I had tried to live up to meant anything to me outside of the context of someone or something making me feel unworthy.
I battled a ferocious eating disorder in high school and have spent a large portion of my adult life learning how to define what it means to feel at home in my body on my own terms. Learning to love, rather than simply make peace with, my body was a pivotal moment in my journey that has facilitated growth in almost every area of my life.
For me, releasing the shame I had around wanting to feel beautiful was an integral part of my recovery. Ironically, giving myself permission to feel beautiful was one of the first keys to letting go of the shame I felt around my body. Then I started exploring what beauty meant to me. I realized trying to live up to someone else’s standard of beauty will always be a moving target that I don’t want to waste my life chasing.
We live in a world that paradoxically shames women for their appearance while shaming them for wanting to feel beautiful. To me, part of being free in my body is having the choice to feel and appreciate its innate beauty however I define it.
I firmly believe our love of beauty is not the problem. The limited scope of what our culture defines as beautiful is the problem. If I become a mom, I want my future daughter to be able to take a compliment as easily as she gives one. I want her to be able to see the same beauty in herself that she sees in other people. I want her to feel confident and joyous celebrating the beauty of others from a place of knowing that their beauty in no way diminishes her own.
I was only able to fully experience the beauty around me once I appreciated the beauty within me. I want every woman I meet to feel that same joy. You deserve to feel beautiful in your skin. I hope you will give yourself permission to come home to your body.
You can learn more at inherimage.co. If you have any questions, feel free to drop me a line at kate@inherimage.co.
