I promise I am not stripping down for this post but I do want to remove the veil that social media allows us all to hide behind. It’s something I talk to with my friends a lot. You see, as a business owner, we open ourselves up to the world a bit more than the average human. No, we don’t post photos of every meal we eat or our daily work outs but we do shed light on our lives in hopes of attracting (and repelling) the right clients. We are all over facebook, twitter, instagram like it’s our jobs (because let’s be honest, it sort of is.) There is great benefit to staying active on social media but with that comes the push for perfection. Soon we feel like we aren’t enough because we aren’t jet setting to Paris or sipping perfectly crafted lattes, our mundane days of coffee and editing suddenly look boring and lacking, surely no one cares what we are up to, right? There’s this pressure, to appear like you’ve got it all together, like life is figured out, and you wear real clothes (ahem, jeans) on a daily basis as you galavant from coffee date to wine night with beautiful friends. Guess what? No ones reality looks like that, seriously, no ones (except maybe Beyonce.) But truth be told, life is a little messy. There are days where you don’t want to get out of bed, afternoons spent on the couch pushing through an overfull email inbox, and nights where you lay awake adding up the things you have yet to complete.

I try to be as transparent as my life can allow. There are things that I would never, ever share on this place of the internet. Life isn’t meant to be exposed to just anyone, however my brand and business rely on me being open and honest with y’all. (I won’t hold back on the fact that I just ate an entire box of mac and cheese shapes for lunch and I am typing this in bed in my work out clothes.) My friend Tami wrote an amazing post on being vulnerable, taking it off to show that we all are real and that reality from one person to the next really isn’t all that different. The thing is this social media pressure is within all of us, it’s this constant need to impress, to gain likes, fans, friends, comments… it’s like this bug that just won’t go away and you are constantly seeking approval from others. This is only elevated when you own a business because now the public eye is watching and in an uber competitive industry like photography the load only gets heavier. The ideal that perfection is the standard begins to weigh on us and no one seems willing to talk about it.

After reading Tami’s post I took her challenge, I marched right back into my office and took a photo – no prep, no hair brushing, no make up. At that moment in time that was what my life looked like. It was an old high school hoodie and Nike shorts, wild morning hair and zero make up. I wanted to show people my reality, to share with the world that I am imperfect, to allow people in to my real life – not just the perfectly styled moments. Most days my socks don’t match, I hate showering so I only do it when I absolutely have to, I do most of my work from the couch instead of my beautiful office, we have baby gates up in our house so our rescue dog doesn’t pee on our carpet, my closet is overfull and my clothes usually end up in a pile, I haven’t used a blow drier in years, and I eat like a seven year old child. This is real life people, it isn’t glitter and streamers and perfectly styled Instagram photos, it’s living and sometimes the act of living can get messy. Being open to removing that perfection curtain and letting people in to your real life only makes you more human, more relatable. Sure, we all hate the way we look sans make up but there was something so encouraging reading the response to my honest post. It was one of my most “liked” photos and to me, that means the world is ready for more realness. So if you want to join the challenge, I dare you to take a photo of your honest life. Don’t restyle it, touch up your lipgloss or change your clothes – I want to see you, the real you, so tag me (@jennakutcher) when you post. I can honestly say that I am thankful I “took it all off.”

Don’t leave yet, there’s still loads of good stuff for you to read:

• Dear Tucker
• The Factory Girl – Dallas, Texas
• Balancing the Hustle
• Adventures not Things