9-year-old directs her mom's stunning maternity shoot, and the internet loves it

Elise Solé
A young girl directed her mother’s maternity shoot, and the results are gorgeous. (Photo: _AlexElle/Twitter)
A young girl directed her mother’s maternity shoot, and the results are gorgeous. (Photo: _AlexElle/Twitter)

A 9-year-old shot and directed her mom’s maternity photos, and the ethereal images are a hit on social media.

In the photos posted on Saturday, expecting mom Alexandra Elle poses on her bed in Washington, D.C., wearing a white nightgown with faux butterflies in her hair. The images received 42,000 views on Instagram and 26,000 likes, along with more than 7,000 retweets on Twitter. And many were astonished that the artful session was conceived by a 9-year-old.

“My daughter has been playing with my camera since she was 7 years old,” Elle, 28, author of the poetry book Neon Soul, tells Yahoo Lifestyle. “Aside from loving STEM [science, technology, engineering, and math], she also likes reading and art.”

Elle is due with her second baby in January, and she and her husband strive to include her 9-year-old daughter (whose name Elle chose to omit for privacy reasons) in as much baby preparation as possible. So when Elle decided to take some maternity photos on a lazy Saturday after feeling the baby kick, she asked her daughter to assist.

“I put these butterflies in my hair, which I bought four years ago from an art store, and I wore my nightgown, which is basically the only clothing that fits me now,” says Elle. “At first, I tried to give my daughter some direction, but she said, ‘No mom, I got it.’ So I let her do her thing.”

The project is a stunningly beautiful portrait of an expecting mother. “She said, ‘You look like a butterfly goddess,’” says Elle, adding that, at her daughter’s request, some of the images are in black-and-white.

The pair plan to frame a few shots and hang them over the baby’s crib. “My daughter often reads her favorite childhood book, Dragons Love Tacos, to the baby and she also paints and draws photos for her sibling,” says Elle. “She’s a little nervous for the new baby, but she’s mostly excited.”

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