Our research indicated that 99% of new moms feel pressure to be perfect. And 81% question if what they’re doing is good enough. But Dove believes being real is so much more beautiful than being perfect.

So for the launch of Baby Dove, we set out to alleviate some of the pressure and anxiety that moms feel by making them feel beautiful, instead of inadequate. To help us, we commissioned world-renowned female photojournalists, including Pulitzer prize-winning Lynsey Addario and Ami Vitale.

Over three days and nights, they immersed themselves in 6 moms’ lives, capturing the beautifully imperfect side of motherhood like never before.

The resulting 120 photos in our online Gallery of Real Moms provocatively depicted the good, the bad and the messy sides of being a real mom. In out of home and newspaper, we ignited conversation by showcasing some of our most powerful photos along with #BeautifullyRealMoms.

To help alleviate the pressure on mom and raise confidence in her new anxiety-charged role, we did not look to commercial or fashion photographers. Instead, we commissioned several world-renowned, prize-winning female photojournalists– the kind whose images grace the cover of Time and National Geographic Magazine.

Over three days and nights, they immersed themselves in 6 moms’ lives, capturing the beautifully imperfect side of motherhood like never before.

Great effort went into finding an inspiring and diverse group of moms who were willing to let us into their lives fully and completely. This allowed our photojournalists to capture images that told stories with depth and profound emotional resonance.

To ensure the photos were as real, intimate and spontaneous as possible, creatives did not attend the shoot. Instead, they checked in with the photographers daily, guiding the process with a light hand. And all images were captured using only available light, in order to avoid a fashion or lifestyle look.

The art director spent weeks culling more than 10,000 raw, unaffected, uncontrived and unretouched photos to 120.

In all touchpoints of the our Beautifully Real Mom campaign, including newspaper, digital outdoor, social and in our online Gallery of Real Moms, we made sure the photos were hero. They were always presented full-bleed, with as few distractions, and as much real beauty as possible.