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Pay It Forward: Nichola Austin

The nonprofit We Are Not Broken is helping hundreds of women see the beauty in their scars.

AUSTIN, Texas — Nichola Austin is the founder and CEO of We Are Not Broken, a nonprofit she started in January that's caught traction like wildfire.

By using her gift as a photographer, Austin teaches women and girls that scars do not reflect brokenness or "less than." Instead, they are the victory marks we earn from the battles we have fought and won. 

Austin told KVUE it all started just as a hobby, jumping back into photography as an empty-nester.

Her first model was a dear friend brave enough to tell her story. 

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"I said, 'Let's take some really raw pictures,'" said Austin. "I knew she had a double mastectomy, I knew she had a hysterectomy, and chemo really ravished her body."

Like her friend, many of these women are patients surviving cancer or victims of a car accident or domestic abuse.

As a result, they have physical or emotional scars. For her friend, and many others, she's helped through her gift of photography – it was the first time she saw herself and accepted her scars as "beautiful."

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