Eunice Brownlee
“That shoot changed me. It represented reclaiming my life, my strength and my power.”
💜EUNICE BROWNLEE @EUNICEBROWNLEE
🧡LOCATION: MILLENNIUM BRIDGE, DENVER, COLORADO
💛PHOTO BY: @LYNNCLARKPORTRAITS
🖤BLACK ”TEARS” ITEM: BODYSUIT/HEELS
💙SKIRT BY @INDIE_TRUE_
💚FOLLOW @TEARSANDTULLE
🎤IN EUNICE’S WORDS...
Hello! I am Eunice and I live in Denver, CO. When I was asked to be a part of this amazing movement, I immediately said yes! I’ve had a lot of time to think about how I wanted to approach this shoot, which is funny because I am absolutely *NOT* a planner.
My tears item is the bodysuit that I bought for a boudoir shoot I booked in October 2017 — a shoot that followed the hardest year of my life. I was still recovering from my parents’ traumatic divorce when I embarked on a battle to protect my child after an incident of child abuse at the hands of her father.
I had just secured a guilty plea in criminal court, was beginning the harrowing journey in family court, I had just been fired from my job, and the relationship I was in (that I thought was going to be forever) was falling apart. The time to spend over $2k on boudoir photos could not have been more inappropriate. Lynn is the same photographer who took the images that were so powerful, they brought me to tears.
That shoot changed me. It represented reclaiming my life, my strength and my power. Leaving an abusive situation is hard. The mental, emotional, and financial abuse that follows is harder. Women are literally risking their lives to get out. Every day in the US, more than 3 women are murdered by husbands or boyfriends.
With that, I have shifted my work into becoming a family court and domestic violence speaker and advocate. I strive to educate the public on just how awful our justice system is, and how it is forcing (primarily) women and children to remain in potentially lethal situations. It is my hope that in the future, holding abusers accountable will not be the traumatic, painful event that it is today. #FamilyCourtMeToo
About Eunice...
Eunice Brownlee has spent her career finding the balance between her left and right brains. She is a passionate writer and writes regularly about mental health, trauma, and abuse. Eunice has been published in The Kindred Voice @thekindredvoice, Motherscope @motherscope and Spoken Black Girl @spokenblackgirl
Eunice is a solo mother, striving to raise a daughter who is strong and outspoken. After five years of coparenting, Eunice was shocked and horrified when she got a call that the father of her child had been reported for child abuse. It was amidst the battle to protect her daughter that really showed Eunice the depth of her own strength and courage.
Eunice’s current project is a book about the trauma of navigating the justice system as a victim of a crime. When she’s not doing any of the above, she can be found seeking her next passport stamp and drinking wine. Follow her @eunicebrownlee
Photo credit @tengbergstudio
#tearsandtulle