If you’ve never been a 15 year old girl, allow me to paint a picture for you: you typically have a lot of acquaintances you call friends, and about 3-4 REALLY close friends that you are practically inseparable from. Louise was one of those friends for me. We practically lived at each other’s houses. I still feel at home in her mother’s house. There’s something about friendship at that age, you either repel each other after a few years or you are bonded for life.
Louise and I are bonded for life. I cannot imagine a world without her. Some of the most challenging things I’ve been through in my life were done with her. Without her blessing, I wouldn’t have made this body of work.
Girlhood examines the balance between these teenage friendships. Shot in her childhood backyard, Girlhood is an ode to the time we spent there in our adolescence. Louise lived about an hour away from me in the country. It was a nice retreat from the chaos at home. The focus shift represents how friends shift between being supported and being supportive. Often without the use of proper boundaries at that. What a tumultuous time.
