Midwest Broken Mirror Project

05/22/2026

📣✨Submission Spotlight: Mardi

For years, Mardi viewed her body “almost like a project — something to improve, manage, criticize, or control.”

This week’s Midwest Broken Mirror Project Submission Spotlight explores the complicated space between healing, femininity, aging, self-worth, weight, identity, and the pressure many women feel to appear “put together” no matter what they’re carrying internally.

“There were periods of my life where I lost a significant amount of weight and suddenly received attention and validation that felt confusing. People treated me differently. It made me realize how much society rewards transformation on the outside while often ignoring what’s happening internally.”

Mardi shares openly about bariatric surgery, sobriety, anxiety, burnout, photography, and the difficult process of learning to stop viewing herself as something that constantly needed fixing.

“I’m in a much more honest place than I used to be. Not perfect — just honest.”

One part of her story that especially stayed with us was her reflection on photographs:

“Even while gathering photos for this project, I realized how difficult it was to find full-body pictures of myself because I’ve spent so many years uncomfortable being photographed that way. It was also hard to find unedited photos.”

Alongside her written story, Mardi also shared music projects connected to her healing journey and exploration of vulnerability, identity, and self-worth.

Read the full Submission Spotlight here:

A little about Mardi: My name is Mardi, though some people know me as “The Michigan Girl.” I’m the business owner behind Michigan Girl, Michigan Music, and Michigan Small Business Solutions, while also maintaining a full-time career of over 30 years. I’m an entrepreneur, Michigan traveler, d...

05/13/2026

The way we learn to see our bodies often starts younger than we realize.

Natalie’s Midwest Broken Mirror portrait is now displayed inside HOYT Library Public Libraries of Saginaw as part of our Mental Health Awareness Month installation.

Natalie’s story reflects on how comments about our bodies can shape self-image from a very young age, and how learning to value her body for what it could do instead of how it looked changed the way she saw herself.

Because of that, we felt Hoyt Library was a meaningful place for her story to live this month — a shared community space where young people and families are constantly learning, growing, and forming the ways they see themselves and others.

05/07/2026

May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and we’ve begun placing Midwest Broken Mirror portraits focused on issues such as addiction, body dysmorphia, and eating disorders.

The first portrait installation for May is Dr. Mo’s story, now displayed inside Drunken Monkey Tattoo (Township Location).

Dr. Mo’s story explores addiction, body image, mental health, and the role tattooing played in changing the way she related to her body and herself. Today, she studies the relationship between tattooing, mental health, and body image at South Dakota State University.

Because of that connection, we felt her story belonged in a space that reflects the comfort, expression, and sense of identity tattooing gave her. 💞

05/01/2026

Tonight, to close Sexual Assault Awareness Month, the Midwest Broken Mirror Project brought our survivor stories into a space centered on conversation, community, and visibility at Old Town Distillery by Wonder during the Underground Railroad, Inc. Advocacy Cocktail Hour.

Surrounded by portraits, conversation, and community, people gathered to practice something many still struggle with: talking openly about sexual violence.

Seeing those stories heard, reflected on, and included in events working to create change in our community is exactly why this project exists.

04/20/2026

One of the clearest things we’re seeing in our Midwest Body Image Survey:

People aren’t trying to love their bodies.

They’re tired of thinking about them.

The hyper-awareness.
The fixation.
The adjusting.
The mental noise.

What people want is space.

Space to move through their day without their body being the main character in every moment.

That’s a very different goal than what most of the conversation is selling.

----> Survey Link: https://forms.gle/3DyrAsqnhJ1cdn4f8

04/16/2026

SPACES THAT HOLD THESE STORIES: Valley-Ob Gyn Clinic 🩺✨

There are few places where people feel more vulnerable in their bodies than a medical setting.

Especially one connected to reproductive health.

This month, Valley OB/GYN is holding Kirbay’s story. It is shaped by childhood sexual abuse, control, and the belief that her body needed to be fixed or made “pure.”

For years, that showed up through strict control over food and movement as a way to quiet what she was carrying. Instead of creating peace, it deepened her disconnection.

It wasn’t until her body began setting its own limits through a diagnosis of Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome that something shifted. She could no longer override what she needed.

Now, as a mother, Kirbay is choosing something different.

She is raising her daughter with a sense of safety, autonomy, and belonging in her body, while learning that same relationship for herself.

Her story lives here for April intentionally.

Because medical spaces don’t just treat bodies. They shape how people understand them.

Thank you to Valley OB/GYN for holding this work in a place where care, trust, and bodily autonomy matter every day.

04/13/2026

SPACES THAT HOLD THESE STORIES: Jade Esthetics 🌿✨

There’s a certain level of trust required to let someone care for your body, not just physically, but without judgment.

That’s what makes a space like this meaningful.

This month, Jade Esthetics is holding Becca’s story: a story about how trauma and purity culture can shape the way someone experiences their body, often leading to disconnection, shame, or the need to control it.

For Becca, that disconnect lasted for years. It wasn’t until she experienced a different cultural relationship to bodies—one without the same layers of judgment—that she began to see herself differently and reconnect.

Her story lives here intentionally.

Because healing doesn’t only happen in clinical spaces, it happens in everyday places where people are already learning how to care for their bodies in new ways.

Liza's work at Jade Esthetics is rooted in care, trust, and education—making this space more than fitting.

It makes it part of the story.

Thank you for choosing to hold this work.

04/06/2026

Most of us have thoughts about our bodies every day.
But we rarely stop to look at what’s actually shaping them.

We’re gathering real experiences from people across the Midwest to better understand:
• how body image develops
• what influences it, including experiences, culture, health, and identity
• how people make decisions about their bodies

We use this directly to guide our installations, storytelling, and workbook content.

This survey takes 2–3 minutes and is anonymous:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScSUkwZO8TN2d7VLTKqPi4HBLpGe_mnWHz-etgbB2z3XVivAA/viewform?usp=header

If you’ve ever questioned your body, struggled with it, or tried to understand it, your perspective matters here.

Subject: Rebecca, Iowa
Photographer: Jena Hovey from McShane Photography

04/01/2026

Today, we quietly installed five stories across Saginaw for Sexual Assault Awareness Month.

Each person carries a different relationship with their body shaped by trauma.

These aren’t displayed in galleries.
They’re placed in everyday spaces: waiting rooms, schools, offices, community spaces, etc. This is where people are already navigating their own experiences.

Because this conversation doesn’t belong in one place. It belongs in the middle of real life.

Each installation includes a story and a way to engage—inviting people to listen, share their own experiences, contribute to our body image survey, or go deeper through the Mirrors Workbook.
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Thank you to the April host spaces that made this possible:
Jade Esthetics
Underground Railroad, Inc.
Saginaw Valley State University
Valley-Ob Gyn Clinic
Child and Family Services of Saginaw

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If you come across one of these installations, take a moment with it. WHAT WE SEE IS ONLY PART OF THE STORY. ✨

09/16/2025

✨Last night was an incredible opportunity for us to share our collection of stories with the Women’s League of Voters, discussing how policy and culture affect how we show up and interact with the world.

Want to host the gallery at your event? Sign up at https://www.creativeembersnonprofit.org/brokenmirror