08/17/2026
‼️ EMOTIONAL POST IM SO SORRY (this eclipse y’all 😂)
BUT I think I’ve spent so much of my life turning the parts of myself I didn’t quite understand into weapons…
Desire. Shame. Ambition. Sexuality. Grief.
All the things we’re taught to edit (and sometimes bury) before we let the world look too closely.
But lately I’ve been wondering… what if the point is not to become less? What if healing is finally seeing yourself SO clearly, ya just can’t keep pretending you don’t know who you are?
Because some of the things I thought were protecting me, really, were just pretty bedazzled chains 😂💅🏻
The insecurity. The shame. The little negotiations over how much was safe to reveal. How loudly I could dream. How deeply I could feel. How much of me was allowed to exist before it became “too much.”
And lately… I can feel those chains loosening.
I looked at these photographs and for the first time in a LONG time, I saw myself and thought: There you are ❤️🩹
Softer. Louder. More vulnerable. More shameless. Less interested in explaining myself before I allow myself to exist.
Which is funny, considering I built an entire career talking about the shadows 😭 But shadow work never ends in the dark. Eventually, something has to survive the fire. And you have to decide what’s worth carrying out with you.
I think I’ve had to live a few little deaths myself to keep becoming. Or rewrites, whichever feels more accurate 😂 Every time I thought I finally understood who I was, another version of me started scratching at the margins.
And maybe that’s the point too.
I don’t think there is a final draft of me.
(Thank the GODS. That sounds boring af 😭)
So if there’s a version of you quietly rattling the cage lately… let them out. Wear the thing. Make the art. Say the strange idea. Take the picture. Let people see you before you feel completely ready 🐦🔥✨
I have this strange feeling I’m going to look back at these photographs one day and know exactly what had just burned away… and what was beginning to write itself in its place.
Anyway… hi 👁️🫦👁️ it me, and here’s to the amazing Marvin Pon-an for capturing these