Pretty Ugly

In 2013, artist-researcher Louise Orwin came across a shocking trend whereby young girls (aged between 8 and 16) were posting videos of themselves on YouTube asking viewers to tell them whether they were pretty or ugly.

Deciding she needed to know why the girls were doing this and what it might feel like to ‘put herself out there, she created three teenage alter egos, posted her own pretty/ugly videos on YouTube and waited for the results.

Pretty Ugly attempts to bring you into the world Louise lived in in 2013. It charts the ups and downs of the research, crunches some nasty statistics about YouTube users and cyberbullies, and struggles with its own moral and ethical stance. It asks how social media is changing you and me, and what this means for feminism today.

There’s some rollerskating, some lip-synching to Britney, some of her childhood toys and some dubious apologies. It is about our obsessions and pretensions, and teenage girls- but don’t let that put you off. It is about you, and me, and the internet.