Sometimes you come along a project that just makes your soul rejoice and  Roots and Wings is that project. It's a quarterly print magazine all about empowering and inspiring women to embrace their authentic selves. The women behind it Laura Lewis and Hannah Luna Rose are a force of nature having poured their hearts souls and spirits into this new publication. I really believe this is what the world needs more of, a magazine that lifts women up instead of tearing each other down which is why I want to make this special post all about it & having just read the headlines that many salons are banning the gossip magazines this is truly the answer!

I first met Laura online via instagram when she was creating Learning Through Living a wonderful homeschooling journal and then got to know her a little more after we had a beautiful motherhood session in the woods. We connected with each other right as she was going through some incredible personal transformations and decided to let her homeschooling journal go so that she could put her whole heart into Roots and wings with her business partner and friend Hannah.

Their vision for roots and wings is something that speaks deeply to me not only will it be a  quarterly print magazine but they will also be holding monthly gatherings where women can come together to be seen and heard.  so when Laura asked me to help create some imagery for her magazine, website and social media channels I was more than delighted. 

I asked Laura what inspired her to create Root & Wings and to share her thoughts and  this is their story through her words:

“The idea for Roots + Wings began quietly growing as Hannah + I were working through Clarissa Pinkola Estes’ ‘Women Who Run with the Wolves’ in circle with our local Red Tent. Looking back on those twelve weeks it was a definite turning point for me. Firstly, it brought to my awareness the magic that can be created when a group of women come together with a shared purpose. But it ran even more deeply than that; it was where I finally met myself.

As I tentatively started my own journey, gently peeling back the layers to find out more and more about who I was at my very core I couldn’t help but wonder: ‘Why is this wisdom so seldom shared or even acknowledged?’

It was the start of a year of intense growth and change for me. I devoured the most incredible books, titles written by women including: ‘If Women Rose Rooted’, ‘Wild Power’, ‘Burning Woman’ and ‘The Artist’s Way’. I was hungry for the knowledge that I’d been deprived of my entire life. But none of it satiated me; the more I read the more I realised that consuming alone was not enough. I discovered that I was made to create and that’s what I began to do.

We’ve been slowly laying the groundwork for our vision for a year now and at last we have something tangible to show for it: 128 pages of beautifully produced, mindfully designed content. Inspiring words written by women, for women. We’ve come together to create what we both felt was missing in our lives; a space where we can feel held, seen and appreciated in all of our complexity, in all of our imperfection, in all of our humanity.

Simply put, we are celebrating the whole woman: mind, body and soul. We believe that this kind of publication is the way forward. As a society we are on the cusp of great change and we are so proud to be part of paving a new way by bringing women together in a world that previously pitted us against one another.

But 'Roots + Wings' is more than just a magazine, it’s also a community. The first of our monthly women’s circles is in just a few short weeks away and once again I’m feeling those familiar stirrings of excitement and wonder that accompany a new beginning.

Creating and running our business alongside the solo mothering and home educating of three beautiful children has been, and will continue to be, a learning curve. I'm so grateful to finally feel able to lean into the journey and appreciate the lessons that are offered up to me.”

Hearing the passion and love that radiates out of Laura when she talks about Roots + Wings is so incredibly inspiring to me and I feel so excited for them and cannot wait to see where this project will take them. 

I am also so incredibly honoured to have my own photo essay, “My Body is Not Lost” published in their launch issue amongst so many wise & powerful women. It is an exploration of all that can be gained from choosing to view pregnancy + postpartum through a different lens than the one that is often first thrust upon us in our society, you can read an excerpt below.

“Becoming a mother has also inspired my work as a photographer. I believe photography has such an incredible ability to help with honouring and celebrating where we are at in our motherhood journey. Taking time to document our lives whether we’re pregnant, with our bodies being stretched as far as they can be, or in the haze of the postpartum days still coming to terms with our new bodies, or trying to heal ourselves from any kind of birth trauma. Allowing ourselves to be seen and heard can be a transformative experience and help with reflecting back to us inner feelings and memories, which in turn can help us process things better.

I have been incredibly lucky to have shared space with some incredible women. Women who have allowed themselves to be vulnerable with me through sharing their own stories and heartbreaks. It has made me realise what goddesses we truly are. I feel society is shifting, more and more women are embracing themselves at all stages of their journey in an honest and authentic way and this gives me hope for the future generation that maybe, just maybe, the damaging messages of the past will be long gone by the time my children are old enough to care.

Motherhood is a journey, it’s a journey to the very depths of our beings. It is relentless. It is beautiful. It is heartbreaking and full of endless contradictions. It changes us. Parts of us die and are reborn. That is the truth of motherhood.”

If you want to be inspired and would like to purchase this issue, it is available to pre-order now through the Root + Wings Online Shop. I encourage you all to support this independent business and help spread their beautiful message. I promise you will not be disappointed, it is the best kind of soul food.