At Kindred Bravely, we have two missions: creating maternity and nursing clothes that are beautiful and comfortable, and building a community of moms who support and encourage each other. We love seeing moms bolster each other on our social media platforms, and we love getting the opportunity to personally interact with these women as often as possible. That’s one of the reasons we’re so grateful to use Kindred Bravely customers, fans, and team members in our photoshoots.
We’ve been thrilled to feature real people at different stages of the motherhood journey: pregnant, nursing, recently postpartum, and a bit beyond. We love that we get to use real women and embrace that real means something different for every woman. Since we get a lot of questions about how we find our models, we wanted to tell you more about our process.
To find our models, we usually reach out to our customer base via email and social media, and we ask if any pregnant, pumping, or nursing moms are interested in modeling. Many of our shoots take place in our home base of Oceanside, CA, so our casting notices are often directed to moms local to Southern California. But since we’re a remote team, we’ve also had shoots in Door County, WI; Los Angeles, CA; Richmond, VA; and Seattle, WA.
In some cases, moms have found us, and we’ve planned shoots around them, like when three sisters who were pregnant at the same time contacted us. The three simultaneous pregnancies (they were all due within weeks of each other!) were incredibly exciting for their family. When the sisters shared an image of themselves on one of our social media posts, we loved their story so much that we reached out to see if they would model for us.
We found a photographer and a makeup artist in their city and mailed them a huge box of clothes. We handled all the logistics and made sure that they had a great day that resulted in photos they treasure.
Other times, we meet someone at MOPs, preschool, or the park who we think would be perfect. We look for women who have a bright smile, look comfortable in their photos, and are currently in the stage of life that our products are designed for.
When we shot our hands-free pumping and nursing bra, we only photographed it on moms who were currently pumping. All of the moms shown in our labor and delivery gown were pregnant at the time the images were taken. This approach can be challenging for us since the mom models we know and love are always continuing on to the next phase of their motherhood journeys; someone who modeled a nursing bra for us may no longer be nursing the next time we’d like to use her for a shoot. That’s why we’re continuously looking for new models.
We make sure to keep our shoots efficient and fun (with lots of good food). When you’re walking around in your underwear, you’ve got to keep it light! With the KB staff (mostly moms) and all the models, there are always tons of moms and babies. When we shoot in Oceanside, local KB moms help out with childcare.
Over the last four years, we’ve hired professional hair and makeup artists to pamper our models (a rarity for most moms and always a treat). We’ve also had a number of shoots where we ask the models to “come as they are” because we want to show women in their everyday hair and makeup, and we think both approaches have value.
We make jokes and listen to music while we help each model pose for our photographers. We pass the babies around and include them in photos with their mamas whenever possible. At the end of the day, we thank our models by sending them home with a box of goodies, including the clothing they wore at the shoot, a KB gift card, and KB swag. Once the photos are ready, we give each model digital images as keepsakes; we find our models really love having professional photos to remind them of that phase of their journey.
Since we’ve so enjoyed getting to know our models, we thought we’d share some of their Kindred Bravely modeling insights with you:
“I had so much fun modeling for Kindred Bravely! The team made me feel comfortable and confident. I am so grateful to have photos with my son to remember our breastfeeding journey.”
-Amber Escobedo
“I have so many words of wisdom that were shared with me by my great-great-grandmother who died at 110. She would always say, ‘Surround yourself with humble women who reflect who you are, and good things will happen.’ She would say, ‘When women support each other and truly respect each other, amazing things can happen in a short period.’ She would say, ‘When you're passionate about something, the money will eventually follow.’ I have always loved to be in front of the camera, and the shoot was so fun; the sisters there were amazingly humble.”
-Antoinette Ransom
“With my first child, I knew becoming a new mom, caring for a newborn, breastfeeding, and recovering from birth were going to be challenges greater than I had ever imagined. However, I had no idea the difficulty I would have in trying to find a nursing bra. It was a couple of months into motherhood when I tried my first Kindred Bravely bra - the Simply Sublime. It was a lifesaver! I had tried EVERYTHING; nothing even came close to this bra. It gave me the comfort, confidence, shape, and support I was so desperately searching for. Now I’m halfway through my second pregnancy, and I have so much relief in knowing I will not have the struggle I did with trying to find a brand that truly thinks about my needs. My current obsession is the Kindred Bravely high-waisted leggings. They’re so silky soft and so comfortable. They’re also thick, so they hold you in, in all the right places. I had such an amazing time at the Kindred Bravely photoshoot. I am so thankful to have these photos that capture this incredible experience. Thank you, Kindred Bravely!”
-Kristin Rounds
“Modeling for Kindred Bravely has been so empowering. I was not able to breastfeed my first baby very long, and I have been fortunate to be able to nurse baby #2. Kindred Bravely uses real mamas as models, and I was able to capture some amazing photos with other brave mamas as well as gorgeous nursing photos with my newborn. They are such a great company to support.”
-Dr. Tania Williams
If you’re interested in modeling for us, click this link to sign up. If we have a spot that might be right for you, we’ll reach out.
As a company for moms by moms, we’re always striving to expand our representation of women so more people can see themselves reflected in our images. We're grateful for all of the women who have bravely shared their stories with us, and we love seeing them light up our website and social media pages. When you see their photos, we hope you’re as inspired as we are by these amazing women who have pushed themselves out of their comfort zone to help us accomplish our missions of creating community and making moms comfortable. Let’s show these models some love on their unique journeys!
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