Photo taken by contributor Kait Mauro, a 22-year-old Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania native who has lived all over the country. Kait has a diagnosis of major depression, severe and recurrent, as well as having experienced anxiety and disordered eating during her teenage years. She is currently an undergraduate at Washington University in Saint Louis where she studies Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies and Creative Writing. Her primary mediums are poetry and photography, though she has also been known to dabble in printmaking and other genres of writing. She seeks to understand her experiences and to connect with others through her art.

About this photo: “I took this self-portrait in the woods. I was very into exhibitionism for a while in my work, so I took off my clothes and smoked a cigarette while my camera clicked away at me on the self-timer. It was difficult and took a lot of trial and error, like anything else, but I loved how plume-like the smoke turned out in this particular image.”

Find more from Kait at kaitmauro.com and her flickr.

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