Workshop helps Cleveland women amplify their voices by images

Earlier this week, on the Broadway Boys and Girls Club in Slavic Village, six Cleveland women had been busy on the brink of present images documenting their life to the general public.

The women, aged 11 and 12, plus the assistant director of the Broadway Boys and Girls Club, can have their work featured at a photograph exhibition Saturday at 78th Street Studios in Cleveland’s Gordon Square neighborhood, beginning at 5 p.m.

The challenge is named IlluminateHER and is in partnership with the Boys and Girls Club of Northeast Ohio. Project creator Holly Fulger, who was born in Lakewood, stated IlluminateHER and her nonprofit True Beauty Discovery, had been born out of years of working as an actress, author and producer. She performed reverse Jamie Lee Curtis on the ABC sitcom “Anything But Love,” amongst dozens of different roles on TV and movie.

“As an actress, it seemed like every single thing was about how I looked, if I was right enough, if I was this enough, that enough,” she defined.

Fulger stated one objective of the challenge and her nonprofit is to fight shallowness and self-image points dealing with younger women.

“The suicide rates in teens and particularly girls (are) absolutely off the charts,” she stated.

In a 2023 go to to Cleveland, former U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy had referred to as psychological well being points amongst younger folks the defining public well being disaster of the time, as social media use has elevated considerably. A nationwide survey that very same 12 months discovered the variety of women reporting feeling assured in themselves dropped 13 proportion factors in only a half dozen years.

IlluminateHER helps women shine

The women collaborating within the IlluminateHER workshop got digital cameras and requested to take images matching sure themes, like “A Picture of Me” or “The Mask I Wear.”

The outcomes had been wide-ranging: Pictures with their pets, sunsets, even a funeral for a beloved grandmother.

Twelve-year-old Storm stated one in all her favorites options her mother, the place the duo are dressed up in matching blue outfits for her uncle’s birthday.

“She does a lot for me. She cooks for me. She get clothes for me. And… sometimes she gives me anything I want and I love that, and I’m an only child,” Storm defined.

Fulger stated she she’s happy with the ladies’ work. She confirmed a photograph of 11-year-old Peighton, grinning along with her two-year-old cousin.

“This goes into the theme joy. So this was when I asked them to take a picture of something that brought them joy, that’s what Peighton uploaded,” she defined.

Bee Puthoff, the 21-year-old assistant director of the Broadway Boys and Girls Club, additionally took half within the workshop as a photographer and mentor. A proficient dancer, she has images of dance battles within the exhibition.

“My whole reason for being here is so I could be who I didn’t have when I was a kid for the next generation for sure,” she defined.

Some of the images are slightly extra summary. Twelve-year-old Genesis snapped a somber photograph of street indicators at evening alongside an empty avenue in Cleveland. The caption reads: “The small signs once again represent how I subtly stop people from precisely figuring me and my intense emotions out.”

Genesis stated she’s determining easy methods to categorical herself by images.

“I feel like I can really capture the emotions I feel,” she stated.

When she grows up, she stated she desires to be a veterinarian, a gardener and a photographer.

“This helped me slowly build up my communication skills and how I perceive and interpret my own emotions. I feel like I’ve understood them more ever since the program started and I feel like I can understand myself better now with Miss Holly’s help in the program,” Genesis stated.

And that’s Fulger’s objective with the workshop. She stated it’s taught her rather a lot, too.

“The thing that’s been the most moving to me about this whole program has been the awareness that these girls have about their lives, their perspectives, their joys, what they love, who they love, what interests them, that has been really amazing to me,” she stated.

Fulger hopes to supply extra IlluminateHER workshops within the coming 12 months.

The IlluminateHER photograph exhibition is from 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 22 on the 78th Street Studios in Gordon Square.