We spend so much of our lives trying to hide the parts of us we think are “wrong.”

The soft belly. The trembling hands.
The quirks, the limitations, the things we think make us less than.

But what if the very thing you’ve been trying to hide…is actually your signature?
What if your “flaw” is your gem?

Let me take you back to one of my favourite stories — one that completely changed how I see body shame and self-love.

The Belly Button that Changed Everything

My best friend — The Body Positive Mum — once told me during a workshop that she loved her body, except her belly button.

“It just looks sad,” she said.
“Like an upside-down smile. Droopy. Wrong.”

I asked her to look at it again — but this time from her angle, not anyone else’s.

From where she stood, her belly button wasn’t sad at all.
It was smiling up at her.

Her face changed. Her energy softened. Something clicked back into place.
It was one of those tiny-before-and-after moments you wish you could bottle.

One new angle. One altered perspective. One act of seeing herself differently.

Suddenly, her “flaw” wasn’t a flaw at all.

She wrote about it later — an honest, funny blog post about her “sad” belly button — and it went viral.
Thousands of women wrote to her admitting they had a body part they avoided looking at, touching, or photographing. A scar. A toe. A hip dip. A freckle. A knee they’d declared “wonky” years ago.

And for the first time, they considered that maybe the thing they’d been shrinking themselves around…
was actually their magic.

Her shame became her connection point. Her uniqueness became her signature. Her limitation became her gem.

I’ve never forgotten that moment because I see the same thing happen at Liberty — every single week.

Women walk into shoots whispering the parts they don’t want photographed:

“My arms.”
“My tummy.”
“My wrinkles.”
“My scars.”

And without fail, every time, those end up being the things that make their photos powerful.
Not the tidy parts — the true parts.

The softness they thought made them weak. The curve that holds their womanhood. The lines that show they’ve lived. The marks that show they survived. The story in their eyes. The bravery in showing up at all.

These are the images that move them. These are the moments that change them.

Your Limitations Are Your Style

I’ve lived this too.

When I started photography, everyone worked in studios. Controlled lighting. Pristine backdrops. Perfect stillness.

Natural light? Outdoor shoots? Women in fields instead of four white walls?
Absolutely not.

But I’m a hippie. I wanted the sun, the wind, the earth, the REALNESS.
My “limitation” (no studio, no lighting equipment, no desire for any of that) became the entire Liberty style.

And then there’s my tremor — something I’ve been embarrassed about for years.
Not ideal when you’re a photographer, right?

But recently…I started experimenting with blur.
Motion. Softness. Energy instead of perfection.

And I fell in love with it. Some of my favourite images now come from the very thing I once tried to hide, and used to apologise for.

Isn’t that wild?
The thing I thought would make me “less” became the thing that made my work more mine.

When you stop running from your limitations…
You turn them into art.

Your gems are hiding in the places you’ve been avoiding.

Not in your perfect angles.
Not in the version of you that’s curated and palatable and pre-approved.
Not in the things you perform for the world.

Your gems live in the things you apologise for.
The things you crop out.
The things you call flaws because someone once made you believe they were.

But what if the part you hide…is the part people will love the most?

What if the softness, the scar, the tremor, the quirk, the “not enough” is actually the thing that makes you unforgettable?

What if the edge you keep sanding down is your signature?

I want to ask you something gently: what’s one part of you you’ve tried to hide…and what could be beautiful about it?

What Gem are YOU Hiding?

What “flaw” keeps tugging at your confidence?
What part of you have you been trying to shrink, disguise, or apologise for?

Because that might just be the thing that becomes your signature.
Your story. Your transformation. Your liberation.

Because you were never meant to be perfect. You were meant to be real.

Comment and tell me your gem — I’d genuinely love to hear what you uncover in yourself.

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