Skinned

Abstract

“Skinned” is a lyrical essay I wrote for a Creative Nonfiction course at the University of California, Santa Barbara. It was inspired by a childhood photo of my older sister and I which encapsulates my admiration of and dependency on her when we were younger. Weaving together the boundaries between dysphoria, body dysmorphia, and a medicalized approach to womanhood and beauty through a therapy questionnaire, the essay explores the difficulty of becoming a woman after a girlhood spent as another’s shadow.