THE SKIN REMEMBERS

I've lived a lot of life for someone my age - the kind that stretches you, teaches you, breaks you, and stitches you back together in ways i certainly will never forget. And that's the whole heart of this issue:

The skin remembers.

It remembers the softness and the bruises.

The hands we get to hold and the ones we hold for the last time.

The joy that lived loudly and the pain that sat through lonely and quietly.

The stretch marks from growth, the scars from birth and survival, the freckles and lines from summers we laughed through

Every version of me lives somewhere on my skin.

Every chapter, every mistake.

And l've spent the last year learning that nothing truly leaves us

- not the good, not the bad. It all settles into who we become.

That's the beauty of life and the beauty of this issue.

@her.exposure started as a tiny idea on the tiny bedroom floor of a Japanese Aironb, and today I get to hold a fifth issue in my hands. An issue made by women who wear their stories proudly in every image they've ever taken. Women who understand that art is just another layer of skin, a place where memory chooses to stay.

To everyone who has followed, supported, submitted, and believed, thank you. You are part of this story too.

And to the lady I used to be, the one who didn't know she'd make it here, thank you for surviving long enough to see this.

Here she is: The Skin Remembers.

A reminder to love the body you live in, the marks you carry, and the stories that shaped you.

And I can't forget my good friends at @ikigaifilmlab you for your trust, always.