I AM LIMITLESS! Amanda’s Story My struggles with self worth began when I was 10. My fifth grade teacher pulled me into a parent teacher conference with my Mom and called me stupid. It was the first time someone had truly made me feel smaller than I deserved. In middle school I was a target of emotional, mental and even some physical bullying. I lost trust in the people around me. I closed myself off to people who appeared to have an interest in me as a friend or more. I didn't know how to talk about any of this with the people who loved me most; my family. I struggled with school work because I fell into a vicious cycle of believing that if I messed up once I would never be able to catch up. I found temporary reprieve from the depression I was feeling in food, which unfortunately brought more trials than actual relief. At my lowest point I had no friends, no family support, I was overweight and depressed. I had thoughts of what life would be like if I just no longer existed... would anyone really miss me, or even care? I had a nightmare about dying one night and no one, not even my family, noticed I was gone. When I woke up I began to cry. I knew that my family loved me and of course they would miss me and mourn me if I died! That nightmare helped me see for the first time that I was more than my fears. I knew in that moment that I was important and people would miss me very much; I once again felt I had some worth! Even though I still struggled for several years with how I felt around other people I was moving forward. In my senior year of high school I stopped caring about what other people thought of me and just enjoyed being myself! When I graduated, I had no plans for college so I found a job and tried to start making friends. My sister invited me to an activity with her church friends that eventually lead to my baptism into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints when I was 19. I still struggle sometimes but I know now that I am worth so much more than I could have ever imagined! I am a daughter of a loving Heavenly Father! I am brave and beautiful with a strength that is deeper than I know! I have a capacity to love more than I can comprehend! I cannot be defined or defeated by the limits of others. I refuse to be limited by my fears, my insecurities, or my doubts. My capacity for growth is endless! I am LIMITLESS! Amanda Lundskog is our twelfth and final BEAUTY we are celebrating!! How incredibly BEAUTIFUL is Amanda?!?! Amanda is such a WONDERFUL, sweet, kind, FUN, outgoing and strong personality. I LOVED having her on the photo shoot!! She constantly had this amazing energy that helped through out the entire photo shoot!! She is a powerhouse and you could just feel her energy, her happiness, and her confidence through the entire photo shoot. When I asked her to think of a pose that described her word, Limitless, she immediately grabbed a HUGE tree branch and lifted it high above her head!! It was AMAZING!! What a rock star. She carried around that branch for a few shots and we were all in awe of her awesomeness!! <3 <3 At our photo shoot Amanda had this confidence RADIATING from every part of her which was AMAZING to witness!! She mentioned at the beginning of the photo shoot, when they were in their first bonding pose, that she had recently lost 30 pounds!!!! We all gasped and started gushing over how proud we were of her!! I looked and stared at amazement as EVERY WOMAN started clapping ALL FOR AMANDA AND HER HUGE SUCCESS ( picture below) !!!! What an AMAZING accomplishment Amanda!! It brought me to tears that this AMAZING group of 12 nearly complete strangers, 14 counting Kelsey and I, IMMEDIATELY came together as sisters in Zion and were soooo incredibly proud of Amanda!! That amazing moment is how we started our Celebration of Beauty photo shoot, clapping, applauding and excited for the amazing success of a fellow sister in Zion, most of us with only knowing her first name :):) What an AMAZING and God-given moment that was!! A moment I will truly never forget. THAT is how we should treat EVERY WOMAN, EVERY WHERE, ALL THE TIME!! As sisters in Zion it is our extreme privilege to come together and CELEBRATE each others' successes, triumphs and beauty. It's important that we build each other up constantly, genuinely and on purpose. We need that unity. From there the photo shoot only got better, deeper, more meaningful and something that can only be described as what I think a moment in heaven would feel like. <3 <3 Amanda's story is so powerful and I feel soooo many of us can relate!! Whether we were unfortunately bullied, talked down to or just have a hard time believing in ourselves and our divine potential sometimes. I am SO proud of Amanda for deciding to just be herself!! There is NO ONE that can be YOU better than YOU CAN!! There's no need for us to fit into this impossible 'perfect' bubble that the world tells us we must. It's better to just be you, it's soooo freeing when you decide that you, just as you are, is enough!!!! YOU ARE MORE THAN ENOUGH!!!! It's the perfect way to thank our Heavenly Father for our bodies, our life and our breath. By showing him we are PROUD of how He made us. He made YOU on purpose and for a purpose, with your many strengths, talents, pure hearts and intentions, your very unique BEAUTY and OWNING ALL OF THAT WILL ONLY BRING EVERLASTING FREEDOM!!!! Amanda has done the most amazing thing through out these last several weeks of posting our Celebration of Beauty women. She has shared each and EVERY woman's story and said something soooo beautiful about each and every one!! She truly has made EACH model from our photo shoot feel loved, accepted, appreciated and heard. I LOVE that we all celebrated her and her accomplishments at the photo shoot and it came full circle with her gushing about each and every individual woman, her beauty and her very personal story. I LOVE THAT!!!! Thank you for that amazing, unselfish gift Amanda!!!! Thank you Amanda for sharing your story with us. I'm soooo grateful that Kelsey was spiritually lead to you. We needed you on the photo shoot. You have made a BEAUTIFUL impression on all of us and on our hearts. You are an incredibly strong, beautiful and limitless woman and I'm soooo thankful you're my friend!!!! We love you Amanda!!!! THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH AMANDA FOR BEING APART OF THIS!!!! You are truly an inspiration, an AMAZING woman and you're so incredibly BEAUTIFUL!! It was an HONOR to get to know you, to read of your journey to self-LOVING, to photograph you intense beauty and to become closer friends with you!! I think you are simply, AMAZING!! You can 100% do ANYTHING you put your mind to and you are going to ROCK whatever you decide to!! You are INCREDIBLE and I just think the world of you Amanda and... AMANDA, YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL!!!! <3 Alexa Taylor-Jay Ogilvie Taylor Jay Photography t is CRAZY SCARY to put your story out there for the world to see, to talk about such hard things/times. But THIS woman is so strong, so courageous and is sharing HER story with the intent to help other women see themselves as God does. To help YOU on your journey to self-LOVING!! If her story, her courage and her heart touches you please let her know by commenting below!! I JUST ADORE YOU AMANDA!!!! This photo shoot was a dual effort!! The other master photographer behind this photo shoot and idea is Kelsey Bailey Photography!! Please go 'like' her Facebook page >> https://www.facebook.com/KelseyBaileyPhoto/ and click here to view HER STUNNING PHOTOS of Amanda Lundskog and all her Celebration of beauty photos as well from our shoot!! >> https://kelseybaileyphotography.weebly.com/celebration-of-beauty/i-am-limitless-amandas-story We had a master videographer documenting every little amazing, tender and BEAUTIFUL moment!! Please click here to see Shaun Schofield from DOZE Videos AMAZING BTS video and get excited to see allllllll the beautiful pictures, stories and the grand finale of throwing color COMING YOUR WAY!!!! Please go 'like' his Facebook page >> https://www.facebook.com/dozevideos/ View Shaun's AWESOME BTS video of our Celebration of Beauty project on his youtube.com channel Please click here to see: >> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8xniy6r68A Taylor Jay Photography - my Facebook page >> https://www.facebook.com/taylorjayphotography/ Here's ALLLL the details below to the why we are posting these women, their personal stories and their journey to no longer self-hating but SELF-LOVING!!!! This is an incredible and inspiring project and we can't wait to take y'all on this journey with us!! <3 <3 >> https://taylorjayphoto.weebly.com/celebration-of-…/the-intro LIKE.COMMENT.SHARE.ENJOY!! Please Like. Comment. Share. Tag. any woman you feel could benefit from Amanda's amazing, real and raw story!!!!
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