By Rachel Halliwell, Daily Mail 10th February 2011
'I WANT TO LEARN TO LOVE MY CURVES'
Businesswoman Rachael Ritchie, 41, lives in Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire, with her husband, James, a 41-year-old mechanic, and their daughter, Charlie, 17, and son, Sam, 12. Rachael says:
I've spent 20 years bemoaning the way I look and enduring endless diets in an attempt to change my body shape. Since I married James in 1991, I’ve been every size, from a 12 to a 20, but at no point have I felt completely happy with my appearance. Yet through all those years of yo-yo dieting my ¬husband has always told me I am the most beautiful woman he knows.
He buys me pretty underwear and tells me I’m sexy, but still I beat up myself over my curves. In our home we have several pieces of art that feature naked women of all shapes and sizes. I see beauty in them all, yet struggle to do the same with myself. The older I get, the more tragic that seems to me.
That is why, when I saw an advert for a studio that specialises in nude portraits, I decided to go along. Yes, it was nerve-racking undressing in front of strangers, but I knew they were just trying to make me look beautiful. I felt so self-conscious about my tummy and kept telling the photographer to get rid of my rolls of fat, but when I saw the pictures, that wasn’t what I noticed. I just thought I looked fabulous. I saw for the first time what my husband sees: a sexy, curvy woman.
Claire McLauchlin-WHhitehead, 28, is a PR executive. She lives in Manchester with her businessman husband, Anthony, 27. Claire says:
No one knows what I’m doing today — my husband thinks I’m working late. It’s not that I’m embarrassed; I just don’t feel the need to tell people about it.
I want to be able to look at them in years to come and remember what it felt like to be a young woman, in the same way I look at my wedding ¬pictures and instantly recall the day I got married. I’ve always hated my legs — I’m convinced they are bigger and chunkier than they actually are — but seeing the shots made me ¬realise it’s all in my head. I know my body is far from perfect, but having these ¬photographs taken is a way of teaching me not to ¬agonise over my looks. I think the pictures will sit in a drawer somewhere, rather than be put on show. I don’t think Anthony would feel ¬comfortable having them on display in our home when his friends come round.
All women should have a set of nude photographs done, whatever they decide to do with them, so they can be reminded there are more aspects to them than most people know.
