continued from page 14

continued on page 18

ABOVE: The Ostroff kids: 
Noa, 15, Maia, 13, and Eli, 
11. RIGHT: Balbes photo-
graphs a child as moms 
look on. Sydney Stibor is 
interested in art. 

16 | SEPTEMBER 19 • 2019 

never feel they have to shut it away 
but can be empowered by speaking 
out and getting heard. 
“At that moment (when I was 
raped), my voice was lost,” Balbes 
recalls. “When something like that 
happens, you lose the ability to 
express yourself. The trauma of a 
rape is devastating and affects every 
aspect of your life. It took me years 
of help, support from friends, par-
ents and family, and therapy to make 
me feel I was worth it. 
“This is where this project comes 
from. I want girls to know they are 
worthy of self-respect and respect 
from others. I want boys to know 
and learn they should treat girls with 
respect and equality before they 
become young men. I want the girls 
to look back at these photos with 
pride and as a reminder they can 
achieve anything they want.”
Recently, she received a special 
tribute for her work to empower 
girls from the state of Michigan.

SELF-EXPRESSION
During the photo sessions, which 
happen around town or in Balbes’
 
home studio on a lake in West 
Bloomfield, children can wear what-

ever makes them feel like themselves. 
Some wear superhero costumes or 
a white lab coat with a toy stetho-
scope. Other girls begin the photo 
shoot wearing their soccer cleats or 
sports jerseys and later will change 
into their favorite dresses. 
Like most kids, Jennifer Ostroff’
s 
three children: Noa, 15, Maia, 13, 
and Eli, 11, usually don’
t jump up 
off the sofa and offer to get pho-
tographed together. But Ostroff 
of West Bloomfield says her kids 
were happy to participate once they 
learned of the project’
s purpose. 
“They loved spending time with 
Bari by the lake,” Ostroff says. “It 
was a great way to wind down sum-
mer. During the school year, there 
is so much stress about grades. It 
is nice to have a moment captured 
where we can just appreciate kids 
for who they are. And to show they 
are all beautiful, and physically and 
mentally strong from the inside out.”
Ostroff said Noa chose to pose 
with an Israeli flag around her shoul-
ders because this winter she will 
attend school in Israel through the 
Ramah Tichon Ramah Yerushalayim 
program. She held a sign that said 
“Connect,” as she hopes on her 

return to strengthen the connection 
between the United States and Israel. 
Balbes says in her own life, she 
was grateful for a successful, 16-year 
career at Quicken Loans while rais-
ing her two daughters, now 27 and 
32, as a single mom. She now has 
five grandchildren. She thanks her 
husband, Jonathan, a custom home 
builder, for his support in allowing 
her to pursue this second career. 
Photography allows her creativity 
to emerge, but also is an homage to 
her father, who always had a camera 
in hand to record memories. 
Balbes started out photographing 
special family events like milestone 
birthday parties and graduations and 
did special projects for the Animal 
Rescue League. Then hit upon the 
Girls Project. 
Before she works with her sub-
jects, she explains her intentions to 
the kids, some as young as 4 or 5, in 
a language they can all understand: 
cake. 
“I explain to them that if we only 
have one piece of cake, we should 
split it equally between boys and 
girls,” Balbes says. “That’
s how it 
should be in life, and it is astound-
ing how quickly they get it.”

Jews in the D

