An Honor to Be Featured: Pixels by Emily in Child Couture Magazine

There are moments in this work that make me stop for a minute and take it all in. 

Seeing images I create printed in a magazine is always special. But opening Issue 10, Volume 16 of Child Couture Magazine and seeing so many familiar faces looking back at me makes this feature especially meaningful. 

I’m incredibly honored to be named Photographer of the Month and to have Pixels by Emily featured throughout this issue. Even more special, one of our images was selected for the inside cover. 

But what I love most about these pages is that they hold so much more than beautiful dresses and finished portraits. They hold the personalities of the girls in front of my camera. 

More Than a Beautiful Portrait 

Several of the girls featured in this issue have photographed with me through Grace & Grit, a project that has become such an important part of the work I do at Pixels. 

Grace & Grit was created around something I believe deeply: girls deserve opportunities to see themselves as strong, capable, creative, and completely worthy of taking up space. 

The couture gowns are beautiful. The sets are beautiful. We can create something dramatic, whimsical, elegant, or completely unexpected. 

But underneath all of that is her. 

Her personality. Her confidence. Her softness. Her humor. The things she loves. The person she is becoming. 

That is what I want to photograph. 

And seeing those portraits given pages of their own in a publication like Child Couture Magazine feels like such a beautiful extension of that idea. 

From the Pixels Studio to the Pages of a Magazine 

This issue includes portraits created in several different ways at Pixels—from dreamy couture imagery to more traditional studio portraits and painterly fine-art pieces. 

That variety is one of my favorite things about looking through the finished feature. 

No two girls need to be photographed exactly the same way. 

One may light up the second she puts on an enormous gown. Another may feel most like herself in something simple. One gives me a huge smile; another has a quiet expression that says everything. 

The goal isn't to turn every child into the same perfectly posed version of “beautiful.” 

It is to create artwork that still feels like them. 

An Extra-Special Recognition 

Being named Photographer of the Month is an incredible honor, and I’m so grateful to Child Couture Magazine for recognizing my work. 

Having Briella's portrait chosen for the inside cover makes the issue even sweeter, and seeing so many of the girls I’vehad the privilege of photographing included throughout these pages is something I won't soon forget. 

These photographs begin in my studio in Mahomet, Illinois, but the finished artwork gets to travel a little farther this time. 

And that feels pretty special. 

The Best Part Is Still What Comes Home 

Magazine features and recognition are exciting. They remind me to celebrate the creative side of this work and keep pushing myself as an artist. 

But the part that matters most to me doesn't change. 

It is creating something that belongs to the child and her family. 

A portrait that eventually hangs on a wall. An album that gets pulled from a shelf years from now. Artwork that reminds a girl of who she was at this exact moment—and hopefully, of just how much everyone around her already saw in her. 

To every girl whose portrait appears in these pages, and to every family who trusts me to create this kind of artwork: thank you. 

You are the reason these photographs exist in the first place. 

And seeing your stories celebrated in print is an honor I get to share with you.