Your Scars Are Not Your Flaws, They Are Part Of Your Personal History

“People consider scars as flaws when actually they are part of someone’s history.”

Sophie Mayanne is a 24 years old photographer, the creator of the “Behind the Scars” photography series and she is trying to change the way people view the human body with her stunning captures of people and their scars.

“My scars are self-inflicted. I was diagnosed with bi-polar and severe depression when I was 14. So many people have different kinds of scars and bringing them together makes you feel that everybody has their own battles, everybody’s fought something. It just brings everybody together and, kind of, just makes everybody like a big family,” a participant said.

The project celebrates scars of all shapes and sizes and the stories behind them. The participants can write as much as they want about the story behind their scar. Some prefer to write more about their emotions and their relationships with their scar, whereas other people give more factual stories. All that is left up to the person.

“My scars come from when I was a kid and was treated for a rare condition called chronic thrombo-embolic pulmonary hypertension, that requires multiple open-heart surgeries to fix. We are all so similar in the amount of struggles that we have been through, and despite all the hardships we have went through, we are all united, no matter who we are,” said another one.

This calls for a change of society’s perception of bodies, but it’s not something that will happen overnight. Hopefully, it will create a domino effect and reach a larger auditorium. Sophie’s camera provides a platform for people to share their experiences and stories to other people in a really positive way.