Denise Boomkens - And Bloom The Art of Aging Unapologetically: Inspiration about life from more than 100 women

Embrace Life Without Fear

100+ women over 40 role models with experiences to share that will inspire women to age positively

I hope this book inspires you as much as the women I have portrayed inspire me.

You become what you see. What you see determines what you believe and the most powerful way of inspiring people is with images. My goal with AndBloom is to motivate women to embrace life without fear and be proud of their years. To provide examples of women between the ages of 40 and, currently, 100, so that any woman can open this book and see themselves recognized and represented.

I never imagined this project would bring me what it has brought me today: a vibrant online Instagram community with more than 170,000 followers worldwide. These are people, like me, who want to be inspired by The Bloomers, women who live age-positively and flamboyantly without fearfully clinging to a bygone era.

I started my career as a fashion model at a young age and travelled the world for several years. I really enjoyed that free-wheeling existence until one day, I realized I wanted a more stable foundation. At 25, I moved back to the Netherlands, bought an apartment and went to art school to learn the art of photography, a passion that I had discovered during my years in front of the camera.

I completed my studies at the age of 29 and spent most of the next decade fulfilling my unbridled ambition. They were years of creativity, long working days, a lot of travelling and a lot of fun. They were also years that flew by very quickly. As time passed, an awareness of aging came more and more to the forefront of my mind. In my daily life, I surrounded myself with beauty. I worked mainly with young models, beautiful designer clothes, perfect makeup and a lot of make-believe. Slowly, the feeling that I was getting older crept up on me; the Big 4-0 was looming and I could do nothing to escape it. Nor could I stop the changes I perceived in my reflection in the mirror.

By the age of 38, I had burnout and a leg thrombosis. I ended up working much less and started to have more time for my other life goals. It was time to take matters into my own hands. After a year of self-reflection, a miracle happened: I got pregnant at 39 and gave birth to a beautiful boy when I was 40. My life was turned upside down. Id gone from being a full-throttle career woman to a mother, and I never wanted to go back, at least not to the career I once had. My camera went into the closet, and I chose to be a full-time mother.

For two years, I enjoyed stay-at-home motherhood, until one day I found myself at a crossroads. A second child turned out to be a wish that would not be fulfilled, and I no longer wanted to work as a fashion photographer. It was time for a new challenge. The question was: what to do with the next phase of my life?

During this period, I felt tired most of the time due to the many sleepless nights, and I felt ugly as a result. Before I became pregnant I had made time for self-reflection; now, I needed to do that again. I wondered why I was experiencing this phase of my life so negatively. I began to pay attention to my thoughts. I had grown into a woman. I felt more whole, more content. I had gradually said goodbye to my life before 40 but I was struggling to visualize the future me. In retrospect, I call this time of my life my Forties Dip; it was probably the precursor to perimenopause.

I had learned during the last years of my career that comparing is killing. Comparing myself to young models had given me an unsatisfactory self-image. But of course, comparison doesnt stop there. We are all continuously influenced by the media. We are being brainwashed daily as to what is beautiful, what is not beautiful and how we should look.