Hi and welcome back to the Carol Markowitz show on I-Heart Radio. I'm not big on

New Year's resolutions. I don't think anyone keeps to them and that makes them largely pointless.

But in 2016 I came up with a fairly easily achievable one

to take more pictures of myself by myself. At the time there was a lot of

conversation around women feeling this self-loathing, especially women who have

had babies and staying out of photographs.

That wasn't really my problem.

I might not always love the way I look,

but I never shied away from pictures,

especially with my kids.

And nights out with my husband can certainly include some

selfies but in all of 2015 a year in which I took several thousand pictures of my

kids I realized I had a total of five pictures of just me

alone. Now why do I need pictures of myself? Well why do we need pictures at all?

It's nice to look back and feel nostalgia and reminisce about a time worth

photographing. And why does every picture of me have to include other people? It's not

narcissism, it's individualism. I'm a mother and a wife sure, but I'm someone without them too

I love looking back at photographs from years ago like there I am at age five on my first day of school. I spoke no English and had a note pin to my dress that had all of my information on it.

Or at 16, all dressed up, ready to go out with friends. There's the picture of me under my Jim Morrison poster

in the horrible basement apartment I lived in

in my sophomore year of college,

or the one of me on the Scottish border the first time I ever traveled alone.

...