Moda y Estilo

Dime lo que ves aunque me duela

Los videos Soy bonita? subidos en internet, generan interrogantes.

Por Douglas Quenqua. 01 de agosto del 2014

Sammie, una tmida joven de trece aos de New Jersey, sale de la ducha y se pone
una simple polera gris. Deja su cabello hmedo y decide no ponerse maquillaje.
Cuidadosa de no despertar a su familia, mira a la cmara y habla casi susurrando:

Las personas de mi colegio y gente de mi entorno dicen qe soy la persona ms

fea que han visto en su vida y que podra ser una de las ms feas sobre la faz de la
tierra

Sean sinceros y dganme si soy fea o no... puedo aceptarlo pero, por favor, no me
digan cosas desagradables

Ella titul el video Soy fea o bonita y como otras miles de jovencitas, lo subi a
YouTube. Muchos meses, 72000 visitas y ms de 2000 comentarios despus, no
se senta menos insegura sobre su apariencia pero si haba aprendido mucho
sobre la crueldad de las personas, relat para una entrevista por telfono en
diciembre.

Ya no me gusta ms mirar el video, me pone triste. Hay personas dicindome

que me mate y es desgarrador saber que existe ese tipo de personas all afuera

Todo lo que ella quera era algo de transparencia: Hay muchas personas que
dicen que soy bonita y muchas otras que opinan diferente. As que dije: Saben
qu? Descubrir lo que los dems tienen que decir

Desde que existen jovencitas de trece aos, padres y amigos han tenido que
responder a la pregunta Piensas que soy bonita? Pero con una generacin que
desde que inicia secundaria, crece entre YouTube y iPhones, est Today, one could
spend hours clicking through short clips of insecure young girls, and the
occasional boy, imploring the Internet to judge their appearance.

Unlike the walled-off environments of Facebook or Instagram, or the one-on-one

intimacy of messaging services like Snapchat, YouTube stodgy as it may seem
to someone who has never known a world without it is where these girls find
opinions from what they believe to be the larger world.

Be honest, they often say. I can take it.

Not surprisingly, results can be devastating, particularly to fragile young egos.

Yes, you are really ugly. Now go cry to someone that actually cares, wrote one
male commenter on a girls video. Ugly at first I thought you were a boy, a
woman wrote to a girl who appeared no older than 12.
Still, the videos keep coming. A YouTube search for Am I Pretty? turns up more
than 23,000 results. Some of the videos date back to 2009, though most have
apparently been made in the last year or two. And more are being uploaded (and
taken down) every day. Lately, the phenomenon has spawned satires, spoofs,
digital vigilantism and at least one piece of performance art.

The videos follow a template: Talk into the camera, show your face, maybe share
some pictures, explain your conundrum (My friends tell me Im pretty; it doesnt
seem like Im pretty, though, says one), then ask viewers to share their honest
opinions in the comments. Some plead with viewers not to be mean.

If Im ugly, comment, Youre ugly, but in a nice way, please. If youre mean, Im
going to be mad, and Im going to be sad, like this, says a girl named Brianna
while demonstrating a frowny face. (I think youre pretty but a bit weird, came
one response.)

Though Hot or Not sites have been around nearly as long as the Internet itself,
seeing the format appropriated by pleading preteen girls has moved something
deeper in a number of observers. To some, the videos are the shameful outcome
of Americas creeping narcissism crisis. Its systemic of a young culture obsessed
with the superficial, said an opinion piece in The New York Post.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/03/fashion/am-i-pretty-videos-posed-to-the-
internet-raise-
questions.html?ref=fashion&target=comments&_r=0#commentsContainer