My mom has been enshrined in my mind as a badass since I was eight years old, though I may not have used quite that vocabulary at the time.

I didn’t particularly look forward to my girls’ tween and teen years. But now that I’m camped in them, I realize something: I should have.

Strong is the New Pretty is a series of photographs showing my two young girls, as well as their friends, just as they are — loud, athletic, fearless, messy, joyous, frustrated. I wanted to celebrate these girls as they are, not how females are expected to be. I wanted to celebrate them, just as they are, and show them that is enough.

She just turned nine this week which means, I only have nine more years to get her ready to fight for herself in the real world. There are just SO. MANY. THINGS I want her to know.