I haven’t always wanted to be a writer. For a serious while in my life, I thought for sure I’d become a lawyer, an actress, or a marine biologist. My school transcripts clearly indicated that math and science were never my strong suits, I was rejected from joining the high school drama club, and after the television show The Practice got axed, so did my dreams of defending the rights of anyone but myself.
When I first started blogging in 2007, a lot of my content centered around the various escapades I had with boys; ones I liked, ones I didn’t, and ones who were just peculiar enough for me to remember. It became an online diary entry of every crush I ever had and every boy who broke my silly, little heart.
As I grew up (sort of), pinkcrush evolved into an eclectic collage of borrowed photos and chance happenings in my life. With each blog post, I felt like I figured out a bit more about who I was and a bit more about who I wanted to be. And now, three years later and settled into a great relationship, career, and apartment, I find myself having a (pink) crush on something else: Scarlet O’Neill.
It’s incredibly flattering when people you don’t force-feed your work to admire what you do, so I couldn’t help my excitement when Scarlet O’Neill - a Toronto-based photographer with beautiful red hair and an even better personality - approached me to do a blog-inspired photo shoot. Someone wanted to take my picture. Me. A twenty-something, struggling writer, blogger, and love lover.
I felt completely and delusionally famous. I booked a vacation day, brainstormed the most inspirational photo ideas I could think of, and began dreaming of the torrid affair I would soon be having with the lens of her Nikon D-700 camera. I could barely focus my mind on work.
It happened on a gorgeous Monday in June. Tons of balloons, two tutus and a couple of bottles of wine later, real life was a million miles away and my photo-reality was exactly how I’d imagined it: perfectly overdramatic, unapologetically fliratious and oh-so pink (crush). Even though just about everything on me was fake - nails, hair, eyelashes - she flawlessly and charismatically captured everything I’ve ever written about and so much more.
After that amazing escape from real life, the 9-5 just doesn’t seem good enough. And neither do any of my other photos.
Photography by Scarlet O’Neill
Hair piece by Headmistress Accessories
Terri Winter's pinkcrush
