The Story of Sexy Beautiful Me
There’s a Story Behind the Name Sexy Beautiful Me
There is a story behind the name Sexy Beautiful Me, but unfortunately, there is also a very long and frustrating story behind trying to use that name on the internet. Sexy Beautiful Me was the name of my boudoir photography business for many years, and I loved it because it represented exactly what I wanted women to feel when they saw their photographs. Sexy. Beautiful. Me. Not a model or some impossible version of themselves, but the woman they were already looking back at in the mirror.
The name was never meant to be provocative or explicit. My whole reason for photographing boudoir was to give everyday women an opportunity to see themselves a little differently through photography. But somewhere along the way, I learned that having the word “sexy” in the name of a business can create all kinds of problems online, even when the business itself is perfectly legitimate and the content isn’t explicit.
When Algorithms Decide What Your Business Is
One of the strangest and most frustrating things about running a business today is realizing that you can know exactly what your business is, but an algorithm can decide that it is something completely different. Sexy Beautiful Me was a photography studio. I photographed adult women, and the work I shared publicly was carefully selected with social media and advertising guidelines in mind. But automated systems don’t necessarily understand the difference between boudoir photography and adult content. They see certain words, look at certain images, put your business into a category, and that can be the end of it.
Once that happens, trying to convince a computer that it got your business wrong can be incredibly difficult. Over the years, I dealt with restrictions, advertising issues, reduced visibility, and other problems that seemed to follow the Sexy Beautiful Me name around. Sometimes I could get something fixed, only to run into another problem somewhere else. I learned the hard way that when an algorithm decides your perfectly legitimate photography business belongs in a “sensitive” category, getting yourself back out of that box isn’t nearly as simple as explaining what you actually do.
Google Became One of My Biggest Problems
Over the years, Google became one of the biggest headaches I had with Sexy Beautiful Me. My business listing faced restrictions, advertising became difficult, and things that should have been pretty straightforward for a legitimate photography business suddenly weren’t. Google has policies around adult themed and sexually suggestive content, which I completely understand, but boudoir photography falls into this weird gray area where artistic photography can sometimes get treated the same way as adult content. Add the word Sexy right into your business name and, well, you can probably imagine how much fun that was.
I started feeling like I was constantly changing things just to keep Google happy. I would change wording, remove a photograph that might be causing a problem, appeal a restriction, wait for a decision, get something working again, and then eventually run into another issue. There was never really a clear answer about what was triggering it, which made the whole thing even more frustrating. After dealing with it over and over again, it became exhausting trying to convince an automated system that Sexy Beautiful Me was simply a boudoir photography business.
Then There Was Facebook
Facebook became another problem altogether. At its peak, the Sexy Beautiful Me Facebook page had more than 20,000 followers, which took years to build. These were women who had voluntarily chosen to follow a boudoir photography page because they wanted to see my work, but over time it started to feel like fewer and fewer of them were actually seeing anything I posted. My reach became ridiculously small compared to the number of followers I had, and eventually Facebook also stopped recommending the page to other people.
That was probably one of the most frustrating parts because the page wasn’t actually banned and I could still post normally. It was just becoming practically invisible. What good is having 20,000 followers if Facebook decides not to show your posts to the people who chose to follow you in the first place? I would post something and wonder how many of those women would ever actually see it. After spending so many years building that audience, watching my reach slowly disappear was incredibly discouraging.
I Tried Changing the Name
Eventually, I got tired of fighting it. In 2023, I decided to change the name of the studio from Sexy Beautiful Me to Dark Moon Studios. There were several reasons behind the decision, but constantly dealing with problems on social media, Google, advertising platforms, and pretty much anywhere the word “sexy” could trigger an automated system was a big part of it. From a business standpoint, changing the name seemed like the sensible thing to do. I thought a new name might finally let me concentrate on photography instead of constantly worrying about what an algorithm might decide was inappropriate.
The problem was that Dark Moon Studios never really felt like me. Sexy Beautiful Me had years of history behind it, and more importantly, it actually meant something. Women knew the name, former clients remembered it, and I had spent years building a business around it. I tried to embrace the new name, but I never had the same connection to it. It bothered me that I had changed something I loved largely because internet platforms made it so difficult to use. But when so much of your business depends on people being able to find you online, sometimes you end up making decisions you really don’t want to make.
So Why Did I Bring Sexy Beautiful Me Back?
When I decided to start photographing boudoir again, I really wanted the old name back. Enough time had passed that I thought maybe things had changed. Technology had certainly changed, and with all the advances in artificial intelligence, I figured these platforms might be a little better at understanding context by now. Surely they could tell the difference between a legitimate boudoir photography business and adult content, right? I was hoping I could bring Sexy Beautiful Me back and this time just enjoy the name and the history that came with it without dealing with all the same problems again.
Well, apparently I was a little too optimistic. It didn’t take long before some of those familiar problems started creeping back, and suddenly I felt like I was right back where I had been a few years earlier. Restrictions, visibility issues, advertising problems, and once again wondering if one completely innocent word in my business name was affecting where and how my business could appear online. It was incredibly frustrating because I had already been through this once, and I really didn’t want to spend another few years fighting the same battle all over again.
Sexy Beautiful Me Isn't Going Away. It's Just Coming Home.
This time, instead of coming up with yet another name and trying to build another boudoir brand from scratch, I decided to do something different. I’m bringing my boudoir photography under Negroni Studio, where honestly, it makes perfect sense. Negroni Studio has always been connected to my photography, and now it can be the home for everything I photograph, including elopements, weddings, boudoir, film photography, and my personal work. I don’t need a completely separate business name for every type of photography I love doing, especially when having one particular word in that name can make marketing the business so unnecessarily difficult.
That doesn’t mean Sexy Beautiful Me is disappearing or that I regret bringing the name back. It will always be a huge part of my photography story. I spent years building that business, took thousands upon thousands of photographs, and met so many amazing women who trusted me with such a personal experience. I’m incredibly proud of what I created with Sexy Beautiful Me, and I’m proud of the name too. It isn’t going away. It’s simply becoming part of Negroni Studio, which feels a lot more like bringing it home than saying goodbye.
The Internet Has Changed Small Business
When I started photographing professionally, I never imagined there would come a day when I would spend this much time worrying about whether an algorithm approved of a word in my business name, but here we are. Small businesses have become incredibly dependent on companies like Google and Meta. They have a lot of control over whether we show up in search results, what we’re allowed to advertise, what gets recommended, and even whether the people who deliberately chose to follow our businesses actually see what we post.
I understand why these platforms need content policies and moderation. The frustrating part is how little room there sometimes seems to be for context. Boudoir photography is not pornography, the word “sexy” is not pornography, and a woman feeling sexy and beautiful in a photograph is certainly not something that needs to be hidden. But after years of dealing with restrictions and trying to figure out what I can say, what I can show, and what might upset an algorithm this time, I’ve reached the point where I would much rather put that energy into photography.
So Sexy Beautiful Me is coming home to Negroni Studio. It’s still me behind the camera, with the same approach to boudoir and the same belief that women deserve photographs that make them feel absolutely incredible. It’s just under a name that will hopefully allow me to spend a little less time arguing with robots. After more than two decades behind a camera, I’d much rather be taking pictures.
