A little girl, A torn dress, and A camera.
- 7 days ago
- 2 min read
I saw a video a few days ago that I haven't been able to shake out of my memory. For better context, I attached it. Watch.
A little girl. A torn dress. And a camera.
The moment she noticed the lens pointed in her direction, you could see in real time the shame. This child, this baby, reached down and pulled a piece of her tattered dress up to cover the torn part. Just like that.
And that's what broke me.
She didn't cry. She didn't run. She didn't even flinch the way children do when they're startled. She just covered it. Almost with the practiced instinct of someone who has already learned from an age far too young what shame feels like.
Oh, I cried the first time I watched it. But having used a few days to ponder on this video, here's what I figured;
That little girl is all of us.
We say children are innocent, carefree, and unburdened. And yet here was this child, barely old enough to spell the word "shame," already carrying it in her body. Already performing for the camera. Already protecting herself.
When did she learn that? Who taught her? I then asked myself, how different, really, am I from her?
Because I do it too, we all do. We just do it with better fabrics.
We cover our torn places with things like confidence, success, busyness, nice photos, and good grammar. We have simply grown up and gotten more sophisticated in hiding. We dress our torn clothes in designer clothes and call it healing.
And then there is the cruelty of this particular age we live in. That video exists now. It’s moving through the internet, passed from phone to phone, screen to screen. And someday, maybe ten years from now, maybe twenty — that little girl will grow into a young woman. And someone will send it to her, or she will stumble across it herself, and she will watch herself at her most vulnerable.
And what will she feel? I pray that when that day comes, she will have done the work. That she will watch that clip from a place of wholeness. That she will look at that child with tenderness. I pray she finds people who love her well enough to help her heal from what that dress—and everything it represents did to her spirit.
I pray she becomes the kind of woman who stands up and tells her story.
But I also know this: it may have been a little girl in that video, but many grown people are reading these words right now who haven’t healed. Who, like this little girl, are still pulling at the hem. They continue to conceal the wounds they've sustained. Still flinching when the camera turns their way. Still carrying some form of shame.
And to you. To us, actually. I want to say:
Yes, the dress was torn, but underneath it was still a child. A child who deserved so much better. I hope these few seconds of footage have done a good job of holding up a mirror so you can start your healing journey. Heal your hurt inner child. I will too.
And in any way you can, be kind to people.
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