Rehearsing Girlhood explores how girlhood is shaped—and often distorted—by the silent, unspoken expectations of femininity. Through layered collage combining torn magazines, childhood photos, book excerpts, and personal quotes, the work deconstructs the internalized messages that teach girls to self-objectify, conform, and be consumed. It reflects on how the female body becomes muse, object, and symbol long before girls can fully understand consent or desire, revealing the deep commodification embedded in cultural narratives.
This project holds the contradictions of girlhood—between innocence and eroticism, softness and spectacle, visibility and control—in deliberate tension rather than resolution. By blending personal memory with found media, it creates a space that invites discomfort, recognition, and reflection. Rather than offering answers, it asks viewers to sit with the complexity of how femininity is performed and internalized, exposing the unseen scripts that shape identity from a young age.
Positioned at the intersection of personal experience and cultural critique, Rehearsing Girlhood offers both a private reckoning and a collective mirror. It disrupts familiar visual narratives to create an intimate yet critical encounter with the norms imposed on girls—norms that many never chose but live by. This work extends solidarity to anyone who has felt confined or watched, revealing the ongoing negotiation between selfhood and societal expectation embedded in the performance of girlhood.
