POINT OF VIEW
Young Women Change-makers: Youths’ Interests in Exploring Topics of Health and Social Change through Photovoice.
This Photovoice project brought together nine young women of colour (ages 14-18) to discuss social issues of greatest importance to the group, through photography and interactive dialogues. The group met weekly for 8 weeks and focused their photography and discussions on topics including anti-Black racism, mental health and social media, gender equity, and body positivity. The group then curated a virtual online photo gallery with a selection of their photographs and self-written captions, highlighted here. Stay tuned for articles and other news that will highlight more findings from the project!
“Beauty standards and trends change, especially because of social media, and these highlighted words are to be put into retrospect for the viewer to think about how these words change over time.”
“This picture is about romanticizing mental illnesses, which I have titled ‘Mental Illnesses: Tragically Agonizing NOT Tragically Beautiful.’ I really want to get the point across that mental health issues are not an aesthetic.”
“This photo is of a girl being trapped under society. This is what we do to our girls – we constrain them from meeting their full potential.”
“This photo is about uncertainty, fear, darkness, and the importance of highlighting mental health in youth communities of colour."
“My favorite photo was probably the one I did about gender-based violence. I call this picture 'Ugh' because I feel like it accurately describes how we all feel about this recurring issue. It is about the daily harassment girls and women (of all ages) face while doing the most basic things and how not a lot is done about it. The constant harassment we face is so heavily normalized, and we are expected to deal with it on our own or take them as compliments despite the fact that it makes us feel uncomfortable.”
“What was extra cool about this photo was that the ‘0 + K = (a negative number)' was entirely accidental… but the symbolism is deep!! We had some discussion in our group around how young people feel so pressured to seem like ‘everything’s okay’ and that they’re ‘keeping it all together.’ And that is so stressful and difficult unto itself.”
“This explores shadeism and racial divisions and distances that exist both within and across racial groups.”
“This photo was about how acrylic nails were popularized by women of colour, and they received hate for wearing them and not given any recognition for it until white people started to wear them. The fence in the picture represented how POC were stuck in this cage where they had to prove themselves to get out and when they did get out they face twice as many obstacles as a non-POC because everyone is ready to attack them.”
“This photo is about the Black Lives Matter movement through my sister’s eyes. This photo represents how my sister sees herself in the movement with her face on the letters of the shirt that reads ‘Black Lives Matter’ in all capitals. This photo also brings awareness to Black individuals who have died in the hands of police.”
