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Face It, Own It! | Digital Book
£19
Face It, Own It!
A digital photographic book (PDF)
When you look in the mirror, what do you see?
In a culture that filters, smooths, and flattens women’s faces, looking “young for your age” is still treated as a compliment. But why should we continue to chase youth, when there is nothing wrong with ageing at all?
Face It. Own It – The Bare-faced Truth about Midlife Women is a powerful digital photographic book exploring how women really feel about growing older.
Featured by the BBC, this project brings together 166 black and white portraits of women over 40, photographed without make-up, styling, or filters. It also includes the words and photographs of more than 100 women who sent in their own bare-faced selfies, wanting to be seen honestly.
This is not a guide to ageing well, nor a book about “embracing ageing” in a glossy or aspirational way. It is a quiet, truthful record of women’s faces, voices, and lived experience.
Inside, women speak openly about:
growing older as a woman
confidence and visibility after 40 and 50
identity, self-acceptance, and change
letting go of unrealistic expectations
seeing themselves clearly, and kindly
This digital edition is a PDF, designed to preserve the original layout and photography exactly as intended. It is best viewed on a tablet or computer screen.
If you’ve watched the Face It. Own It film, this book offers a deeper, slower way to sit with the work.
If you’re new to the project, I hope you find recognition, reassurance, and truth here.
Thank you for supporting independent, women-led creative work.
Some recent reviews...
Great book. Reading over the comments is like having a group of friends round for dinner and sharing their thoughts and experiences . Both inspiring and supportive. Let's celebrate life!
Fi
For all women out there, this book will help you see beauty in other women, no matter their age, experiences or looks. It helps women value other women and see who they are rather than just ‘face value’ which society has rarely reflected. This is an essential book for women about women, their futures and attitudes and is a real celebration of life.
S M Clayton
Such a great uplifting book for all women of “a certain age”. It lifts your mood, confirms everything we really knew already, but needed to have confirmed. A myriad of fabulous women proving that midlife is a state of mind. Buy it!
J Warren
For many, makeup is a means of hiding; a mask we paint on before we present our face to the world. But we have a face already, and it is beautiful, it is expressive, it is the map of our strength and wisdom. This book gives a whole raft of beautiful women the safe space and community to show their face. Over 40, no make up. Just the lines and creases and saggy bits that show a life well lived, well laughed, well loved. I’m not dissing makeup, by the way. We are lucky to have the option to paint on and glam up. But one of the most liberating things we will ever do is realise that’s a fun decision, not a necessity. That wearing make up is for us and not for the opinion or the acceptance of the world around us. That we don’t need to filter ourselves even in a world where it has become normal to enhance reality at the touch of a button. Jo’s book is beautiful, and it is powerful. Gaze at the faces, read the snapshot stories, and appreciate the courage it takes to commit your unfiltered self to print forever! If you are over 40 and starting to wonder whose face peers back at you in your bathroom mirror, this book is an understanding confidante and supportive friend. And if you are heading for that stage of life, this book will hold your hand and walk you through the changes ahead, reminding you at every step how beautiful you are. Buy it for yourself, and buy it for the women in your life who might need reminding how glorious they are!
Lucy Boulter