We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Nichola Cottto a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Nichola thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s kick things off with talking about how you serve the underserved, because in our view this is one of the most important things the small business community does for society – by serving those who the giant corporations ignore, small business helps create a more inclusive and just world for all of us.
I founded a nonprofit called We Are Not Broken, to serve those women and girls with physical and emotional scars, what you might call the underserved. I took the skill of photography, storytelling, videography, and empowering women to share their “Scar Stories”
In a world filled with photoshop, over edited photos, filters and how we view what women should look like, I wanted to create a new culture around scars. A culture that would embrace a scar, no matter the origin, as a thing of strength, beauty and also a way to empower others walking the same roads.
We all have scars, but we are also taught very quickly to cover them up, to put makeup on them, tattoo over them, to not show weakness by sharing our pain, hurt, trauma.
We have a voice and it needs to be used for good, for sharing, for empowering one another. Women can feel beautiful even more so with their scars because it shows the world and one another we came through the fire, we came out of the battle, we won the fight because we are still here to talk about it. We need to see more scars in this world, more beautiful scars because the truth is We Are Not Broken.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
After retiring from the health & fitness industry, I searched for my next adventure in life, something where I could make a difference and not a paycheck. I volunteered at my church on the photography team and just fell in love with capturing people in their vulnerable moments, in their happy and sad moments and I just knew this is what I wanted to do, I just didnt know how it was going to happen. Out of the blue I get a phone call from a friend from an old army base we used to live on. She was coming through TX on her way back to Alabama after burying her mother from breast cancer. I told her to come spend the night and not drive all the way through. That night I asked if I could take pics of her, as I had made a spare bedroom into a small photography studio so I could practice. She obliged and asked me if i wanted her to get all glammed up and I really did not want to do that I wanted to take pics of her scars. I knew Mimosa well and I also knew she tested positive for the BRCA gene so she had had a bilateral mastectomy and reconstruction. She of course obliged, the photos turned out beautiful, so much so that I asked i I could share it on facebook, again she obliged. I put a call out that night with her photographs to every woman, If you wanted me to take a photograph of you, your scars or something that made you feel less than as a woman, I wanted to do it and I wanted to do it for free. That morning i woke up said my goodbyes to my friend and opened up my inbox, which to my surprise was full. It was in that moment I heard God say, “This is what I want you to do and I want you to call it We Are Not Broken”
I am most proud of starting a nonprofit serving women and girls with physical and emotional scars, Having a national and International We Are Not Broken day, January 17th, trademarking We Are Not Broken, publishing the first ever Scar Stories Coffee table book, volume 1, telling the stories of over 500 women and girls in a little over 4 years. Everyday I get to use my gift of photography to capture these stories, I have a 5 time emmy winning producer who now does all of the videos, and an amazing woman who has been volunteering since the beginning to come in and do all the hair and make up, and all of this is all funded through private donations.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
I recently was diagnosed with breast cancer, and having done so many scar stories about women who have had mastectomies, who have also passed away, it was now my turn to walk out this walk in full view of everyone to share my scar Story as it unfolds. I could of easily shut down and closed up shop while going through this battle but staying not only in the fight for my life but in the fight for all women to always be bold enough to share their scar stories. It helps so many others.
Can you open up about how you funded your business?
I started to do photoshoots for $50 and every penny went into purchasing equipment for the studio. I opened up a studio from my own money so that I would have a place to shoot all of these amazing stories. I never had any investor, I had a work ethic that was If I dont make enough money to fund this, no one will ever hear these beautiful strong amazing scar stories. That has what has keept me in the fight. Now I go and ask for donations, now that I have the 501(C)3 I do annual fundraisers.
Contact Info:
- Website: wearenotbroken.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wanbscarstories/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wearenotbroken2019
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wanb2019/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYwT8-1DFd4yg5BmPp3uR-g
- Other: tiktok https://www.tiktok.com/@wearenotbroken
Image Credits
Todd White Studios