'Episode One' by Anna Grace Dulaney

​Episode One  
By: Anna Grace Dulaney 

I skimmed the racks of clothes with my five-year-old sister. She picked up a shirt with kittens and bunnies on it. We went into a fitting room to try it on. She removed the shirt she was wearing, then paused to examine herself in the full-body mirror. I witnessed her innocent eyes take in for the first time the image of her small, exposed body. I watched as her small fingers prodded about the damaged skin. She had suffered from a common childhood rash that had left holes in the skin of her upper torso. She looked sad as she discovered these imperfections on her body. I stood and watched her image in the tall mirror. I felt my heart wrench for her and I wanted more than anything for her to be able to see herself through my eyes. I thought to myself how sad a society we must live in for a five year-old girl to see her body and identify all of its flaws without even being told what they were. I wondered who she must be comparing herself to. Is there an image of an “ideal” five-year-old girl? Who told her she was not perfect?

Edited by: RaeAnna G