The Campaign Story
As a commercial photographer, Caitie McCabe shoots professional and non-professional models of all ages and backgrounds.
For majority of the women and girls she works with, Caitie noticed one trait many had in common — self-consciousness.
BTS photo by Phoebe Cheong Photography
"I photograph women and girls all the time," Caitie says. "The moment I put the camera up to my face, they shrink. Immediately it’s, ‘I hate photos of myself.’ They have all of these strange things they have to call out and warn me about, and they’re never true. It’s crazy.
"The women who have been through the Beautiful Me programs, the moment they walk on set it’s a totally different story than what I normally experience. I don’t get the warnings. I say, ‘Hey, I’m going to take your portrait,’ and they’re ready to just have fun, and they’re ready to enjoy the experience, and they’re ready to celebrate their photo and it’s just so cool."
Seeing how different it was to photograph self-confident females, Caitie knew that she wanted do something to help amplify Self-Esteem Rising and its programs, and spread more self-confidence throughout the world. And she wanted to gather a group of strong women to help her make it happen.
“I wanted to do for Self-Esteem Rising the same thing I do for huge companies — show the world how awesome they are,” Caitie says. “Nonprofits deserve just as much recognition as, if not more than, the big Fortune 500 companies I’ve shot for. Programs like Beautiful Me are providing important education to women everywhere, and I felt that if we gathered the right group of females together, we could do something great for the organization.”
The #SelfEsteemRising Campaign was born, and in the months since has grown and blossomed into something great thanks to the work of an impressive group of mostly female volunteers who were inspired by the goals of the program.
When organizing the campaign photo shoot, Caitie gathered her normal crew of hard-working women, but also posted about the larger message of the campaign onto the Freelancing Females group on Facebook. The response was tremendous, and a dream team of women — many of them small business owners and entrepreneurs —united around the idea that self-esteem is a superpower and more girls and women need that message in their lives. Designers, PR gurus, social media mavens, copywriting wizards and more from every corner of the country volunteered their time to spread the Self-Esteem Rising message nationwide.
The #SelfEsteemRising Campaign includes stunning portraits of the girls and women who have been through the program, first-hand accounts about the difference self-confidence can make in someone's life, videos and behind-the-scenes photos and stories from the photo shoot, blog posts, social media elements, graphic design, styling, and so much more. And it was all created by women who worked countless hours on top of full-time jobs, family responsibilities and daily lives because they believed so much in the mission.
The result of their hard work is this campaign and the idea that all females should believe that #ConfidenceIsMySuperpower.
Campaign launched in Times Square!
