A world of her own. photos by LIANNE GRAY model RUBY YIANNI
A tricky balance between childlike innocence and adult worldliness
The photographs show the transformation from girlhood into adulthood. In the comfort of her own bedroom, these photographs focus on a particular teenager who continues to struggle for perfection throughout her everyday life. The photographs captured her day to day routine in the comfort of her very own bedroom. Exhibiting very adult behaviour while holding onto her childish roots, we can see the issues teenage girls face today and pressures that arise when growing up.
The aim of these photographs was to capture the mixed emotions and pressure’s that girls this age experience. Where they begin to mimic adult behaviours such as the way they dress and obsess over the way they look. With the fashion industry bombarding teenage girls with distorted imagery and delusional ideas of what you should look like, it has lead to a self obsessed culture where image seems everything.
“The way you look is always going to be important. You have to be a skinny. You have to dress this way, do your hair this way, and weigh the same as everybody else.”-Ruby
Ruby Yianni, Age 15, United Kingdom
“I’M VERY FUCKING HAPPY TO BE ALIVE.”
As women grow older and enter their golden years, the Spanx comes off and the knitting comes out. They become desexualised, dehumanised, tired and dull or at least that’s how they’re characterised in today’s media. However, this shouldn’t be the case, age prejudice makes us incapable of seeing the true beauty within ourselves and in each other. What is it about growing old that puts fear into people; surely age is just a number, isn’t it? We are currently living in a world of fast fashion where modernity has brought us the capability to do anything at any time. In our youth obsessed culture the word ‘old’ is ignored and pushed to the back of one’s mind. Through the forces of advertising and marketing, women are constantly bemoaned at the first sight of grey hair or the “catastrophe” of when your first wrinkle appears. Bombarded by the fashion industry where image is everything, I question whether or not we’ve lost our connection to who we are and to the people around us. Where age isn’t just a number and 60 will never be the new 30. Today’s teenage girls desperately want to mature into womanhood. That short-lived innocence where young girls were content to be at home, covering every inch of their bedroom wallpaper with posters of their icons has been replaced with the desire to live the same glamorous lifestyles that are publicly displayed by today’s “A” listers. This focus on youth particularly in the fashion industry has lead to delusional ideas of what a woman should look like and pushes teenagers to grow up too fast. Although this creates peer pressure and unhealthy competition especially with younger women, we can’t forget the impact it has on the older generation. We are sold on the idea that when those dreaded wrinkles start to appear you’re stereotyped as being old.
According to a Dailymail survey, three quarters of women over 55 think that the high street stores are ignoring them, expressing that the clothing on offer is too focused on the younger consumers. With the industry fixated on youth, they are alienating the older generation. Instead of embracing women at every stage in their life, we are gasping at every grey hair we see. With the beauty industry worth £17 billion in the UK, anti-aging products are constantly being advertised as a necessity. Unfortunately it doesn’t just stop here, cosmetic treatment has grown significantly over the last ten years where women are choosing to go under the knife to improve their appearance. It’s because of this dexterous advertising women are going to extreme lengths to preserve their youth but is it really worth it? We need to learn to embrace ageing instead of running away from it. Look up to people like Jessica Lange who at 65 was the face of Marc Jacobs Beauty and Ari Seth Cohen whose documentary ‘Advanced Style’ celebrates the ageing process. Where older women are filled with self-confidence portrayed through the way they dress and where true beauty never grows old. Nora Morris, 78 from Hertfordshire says “I’m very fucking happy to be alive. I’m a thousand times more confident than I was twenty years ago, I dress for myself and I’m smarter, stronger and faster than ever.” Although the fashion world will always be concentrated on the younger generation, we need to present more positive media and assure women that the ageing process is nothing but a beautiful part of life. Fundamentally, we need to throw away our anti-ageing creams, quit dyeing our grey roots and be able to redefine the existing stereotype of ageing because as 60-year-old supermodel Cindy Joseph says, “ageing is just another word for living.”
IT’S NOT ABOUT AGE, IT’S ABOUT ATTITUDE. Photography by LIANNE GRAY Models: Pat, Nora, Olive, Christine and Sue
Sue is wearing a top by Reiss, fur gilet by Hobbs and necklace by Accessorize
“I DON’T CARE HOW OLD I AM, I’M FITTER, FASTER AND SMARTER THAN EVER.”
Nora is wearing a handmade knitted jumper with blouse by M&S, Necklace and brooch is vintage.
Olive is wearing a top by M&S Classic, trousers by Next and handbag by Matalan
Christine is wearing a dress by Jigsaw, sunglasses by Prada, shoes by John Lewis
Christine is wearing sunglasses by Prada, earrings by Artico, cashmere scarf by LK Bennett.
Pat is wearing a vintage pearl necklace and a shirt from Oxfam
Christine, Sue, Pat and Nora all wearing a piece of vintage jewelry
“AGE IS JUST A NUMBER, YOU CAN BE BEAUTIFUL NO MATTER HOW OLD YOU ARE.”
FRESH FACED March 2015