A Letter to You
Four young women of color, their struggles with beauty standards, and their journey towards self-love and collective empowerment.
BY: Ana Marroquin Tercero, Skarlet Barba, Debra Sani, and Estrella Barcenas
Our film focuses on highlighting the negative effects of beauty standards on young women of color, while deconstructing it as well. We want to effect change with our film campaign by empowering youth to embrace who they are, and to not fixate on what society wants them to be.
As a society, it is our duty to encourage self love and acceptance at a young age — to develop a healthy relationship between girls and their self esteem.
We hope that through this film we create a social movement called “A Letter to Us”, where people who have struggled with beauty standards and self love write letters to themselves. We hope that this movement can spark change in how beauty standards are used in our world today.
PRE-SCREENING DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
- What are society’s beauty standards for a girl like me/you?
- Who defines these beauty standards?
- How have beauty standards impacted the way that modern society works ?
POST-SCREENING DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
- How can you help create an environment whether at home/school/work/etc. that is open and embraces the beauty in diversity?
- How have you reinforced societal beauty standards?
- What roles have you allowed beauty standards to play in your life ?
ORGANIZATIONS:
- Genz Girl Gang
- Nalgona Positivity Pride
- Day One
- ImMEDIAte Justice/Survivor Love Letter
- Las Chicas Chulas
MEDIA MATERIALS:
- Watch “A Girl Like Me”
- WATCH + SHARE THIS FILM
- Write a loving letter to yourself
- Support body inclusive initiatives (don’t support brands that only show white standards of beauty)
- Talk about these topics at school
- Start a body positive crew
- Call out people who perpetuate harmful and un-inclusive beauty standards; call yourself out when you do it too. That’s how we change!
- Get the Crown Act passed in your state, to prohibit hair discrimination in the working environments
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