Nadia Louis-Desmarchais / Canada / 2022 / fiction short / 9’

Bird’s Nest

Lena, a 7-year-old black girl receives a drawing mocking her hair. With the help of her big sister, they will spend the evening trying to make Lena beautiful like her classmates. How far are we willing to go to be seen in a society whose beauty standards only apply to a portion of the population?