tara kuhlow photography

In honor of my beautiful firstborn, Avery Hazel, and her three best friends turning ten years old, I offered them a fun and relaxed photo shoot. My intention was to encourage the girls to recognize and celebrate the amazing, intelligent, kind-hearted, strong young women they are growing to be and the loving, intense bond they are blessed to share with each other. I find that parents (myself included) tend to overlook this stage of our children’s lives, photo-wise. There are often big gaps in albums between the sweet innocence of baby, toddler and early childhood years and graduation portraits. The “tween” years will go past so quickly, as have the ones before this, and sooner than I like these girls will be women. My goal was to capture a moment in time, so that they can vividly remember the delight of 10-year-old silliness with your friends…the beauty and magic of girlhood.

My sincere hope is that they can look in the mirror and see what the rest of the world does…unique and fabulous girls who will take on the world someday, both individually and together. To Avery, Grace, Kailey and Malaika: I am so very proud of you all. Thank you for all the joy and giggles we shared as I snapped away during your shoot. Most of all, thank you for being such incredible examples of the meaning of “girl power.”