I manipulated my images with one another in Photoshop after editing in Lightroom.

My concept behind this experiment is a shared societal insecurity of how we all never feel that we are beautiful enough and feel that we cannot be happy with ourselves until everything about us is improved. I wanted to represent how, especially girls, are so eager to grow up however once you have it makes you reminisce on being young and not cherishing it enough. My idea was a woman looking back into her young teenage years, which is why it is in black and white, recalling the memories of her as a young person in a society of beauty standards, trying to ‘improve’ every characteristic about herself. This is representative of how much pressure is put on women in society and how it causes young girls to be infatuated with their looks, when realistically they should be living the best years of their lives.

In this image I wanted to represent how through society’s strict perception of beauty, and how our reflections and opinions on our own looks become warped through the constant attempt to find something else to change.

I made these two images look as if they are shaking to represent the stress, betrayal and drama within the culture of teenage girls.