We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Abbie Beck a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Abbie, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. One of the most important things small businesses can do, in our view, is to serve underserved communities that are ignored by giant corporations who often are just creating mass-market, one-size-fits-all solutions. Talk to us about how you serve an underserved community.

Jessica came to me feeling swamped by her everyday life. Between a busy work schedule and her kids, she never had time or energy to do things just for herself. What mom does, right? She also was worried about her body had changed since kids, and trying to accept and love it for where she is now. She booked a boudoir session to try and find her confidence and her Jessica-ness again, and even though she was super nervous, she was excited too!

I brought in hair and makeup specialists for some fabulous pampering, and made the entire day all about her! From the lingerie she picked out from my client closet, to her feeling comfortable enough to do half the session in just the satin sheets, to showcasing her personality with a strawberries and cream add-on…she felt like a queen! She walked out of her session feeling like a boss b****, and she relives that feeling every time she looks at her album! It definitely changed the way she looked at her own body, and now she feels more confident and sexy all the time!

When I asked her what she’d tell to other women who feel like they can’t do a boudoir session, she said, “I’m sure there were other things you thought you weren’t capable of because you were too shy, too nervous, too big, or not sexy enough. You are you! No one is able to take that from you. You are sexy. You are fierce. You will rock this shoot and amazed by what Abbie will be able to capture.”

To go from feeling overworked and overwhelmed by life, to letting her get back to feeling more like herself and making her better for everyone around her…that’s some pretty big change, just from some beautiful pictures!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

When I first started in photography, I followed the same path that most people in my demographic follow. I started working with families and kids, then added couples and weddings to my wheelhouse, and I loved every minute of it! The kids were cute and funny, the weddings were beautiful, and I love getting to serve people who were goofy and joyful and fun!

Right before covid shut everything down, my husband and I found out that we were pregnant with spontaneous twins, which was a complete shock to us, because twins don’t run in our families. (Well, I guess they do now!) Growing two babies at once was so drastically different from my first pregnancy a few years prior. My body became almost comically distorted, and it felt unrecognizable at times, especially with the cankles I got from high blood pressure mixed with working outside in Texas in July.

After the twins were born, my body didn’t rebound like it did after my first daughter. It felt like every time I looked in the mirror, there was a new piece of skin that wasn’t where it used to be, a stretch mark that I couldn’t see previously because my stomach was too big for me to see around it, or a new wrinkle from the stress and sleepless nights. And, of course, when you’re breastfeeding twins, you have to eat a lot more to make sure you have enough calories to make two babies’ food, but once they start weaning, you have to remember to only eat enough for one person, not three!

All that to say, I didn’t like what I saw when I looked in the mirror. I didn’t feel like myself. I couldn’t recognize my body anymore. I was so lost in the role of being a mom to three little girls 3 and under, and managing the house, and a business owner, and countless other roles. I was struggling to remember who I was, outside of the Mommy and Mrs titles.

One day, it occurred to me that there’s no way that I’m the only woman who’s ever felt like this or struggled with these emotions. I realized how commonplace it is for women and caregivers to become so absorbed in taking care of everyone else but themselves that they lose sight of their own self, their individual spirit. I also did a lot of research into how society speaks to people like that, and how it affects that target market. Does this sound familiar?
-“Buy these control-top jeans to hide that mommy tummy!”
-“Buy this wrinkle cream to make the years vanish!”
-“Follow this simple workout and diet plan in just 2 hours a day to get that pre-baby body back!”

So much of the time, all “other people” can see are the Mommy and Mrs. jobs, and that’s what these women get boiled down to, by others and themselves. I wanted to find a way to help women rediscover the amazing person that they are outside of those roles. Outside of being “just” a mommy, “just” a wife, “just” an employee, “just” caregiver, “just” the boss… whatever we have lost ourselves in.

I found boudoir photography as an amazing outlet and almost therapy for helping women find their sense of self again. Through boudoir photography, I have been able to encourage women to see themselves for more than just what society tells them they are, to reimagine themselves outside of what other people call them, and to help them remember how incredible and strong and powerful and sexy they are!

I want women to leave their session with me embracing their body for what it is now, embracing their heart for themselves, and to feel comfortable with themselves alone for the first time in what may be decades! Confidence is such an amazing gift, and I want to give that to as many women as possible! The confidence it takes to take pictures in lingerie or completely nude can be really hard to come by for some women – myself included – but once it’s there, it bleeds over into every aspect of your life! Boudoir allows women to get back to feeling more like themselves, to put themselves first again (even if it’s just for a day), because they will relish that strength and use it again and again to keep moving forward.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

My ideal boudoir client is a mom like me, so I go to where we like to hang out – Target! No, I’m totally kidding! I get the majority of my clients from local bride and mom groups on Facebook! I have a private VIP page for my boudoir on Facebook that I’ll post information for, or people in the group will invite their friends to it. It’s a really fun group that joyful and supportive, so it’s a restful place compared to a lot of the internet. When I’m posting and interacting in the group, it gives the women there a chance to get to know me, as well as see pictures of my clients that I’ve taken, and it helps build that know, like, and trust factor! Boudoir is such an intimate experience, and it can be scary for a lot of people. I want my clients to know the real (very dorky) me and feel comfortable with me, so their session is as fun and easy as possible!

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

A lesson I’ve had to unlearn is the mantra you hear a lot: “Fake it ’till you make it!” I’ve heard this from so many different people, including educators, and while it served me well when I was trying to write a 5-page essay on a book I hadn’t read, it can be very detrimental to your business! There was a time in a previous job where I took a phone call from a client where I had no idea what to say, but instead of handing the phone off to someone else, or admitting I didn’t know, I bluffed my way though.

Terrible idea. I said completely the wrong thing, ruined the client’s day, and messed up my boss’s day because of it. Since then, I’ve been a huge proponent of learning as much as you can about a thing before attempting it (or trying to talk about it)! Especially with something as personal and important and photography, if I tried to “fake it” on someone’s wedding day without knowing what I was doing, I could ruin their day and their once-in-a-lifetime memories forever! If I tried to “fake it” for someone’s boudoir session, and inadvertently posed them in a very unflattering way, I could negatively affect their confidence for years to come! (It’s happened to me, and it was heartbreaking.)

I’m a huge believer in doing your research, practicing over and over, and constantly learning, so that you’re always serving your clients with your absolute best, not your pretend best.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.abbieroadphotography.com/boudoir
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/afterdarkwithabbieroad
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/groups/afterdarkwithabbieroad
• Other: TikTok: @abbieroadtx