I know almost nothing about photography, but I can see how the way you've cropped it brings a whole different feel to the shot. The cropped version feels more genuine, somehow, less posed, Her expression wonderfully more thoughtful, a candid moment of deep reflection.
Cropping off the top of the head to focus on the face and create a close-up is a common trick I often see in magazine photography. My colleague is an interesting person, I think this photo reflects that. "Ambiguity," as @agmoore summed it up after looking at the photo. The thing that upsets me a little is that the model didn't like the result - she immediately deleted the entire session. Perhaps she was upset to see wrinkles and bags under her eyes.
Thank you for the compliment, I'm very pleased to hear it. 🙏
!PIZZA