#share ko lang because I honestly I was a shook LMAO

[eir-trixa]

A dinglehopper

This actually has a bit of a story, for once.

See Im doing an internship in our city capitol and once in a while, a clerk brings her granddaughter to work. Usually it was my co-intern she goes to but since she’s done with her hours, the kid now goes to me to play. So we became friends quick.

So she finds out that I can draw a bit and asks that I draw a mermaid for her, which I did, and let her do the colouring. So I let her do the colouring for a while with little guidance on how to use the digital drawing tools. When it came to color her skin, I picked a darker tone (partly because I just saw TLM and and was still freaking out) and helped her color. At the end of it, she told me that it turned out “ugly”. Rude but okay- so I asked her why, she told me because the skin is too dark. Then she pointed at my skin (lighter than hers and the mermaid we painted) and said that it would be prettier if we made her color like mine.

Which was an insanely misguided opinion that I corrected immediately. Told her that beauty comes in different colors, and that she’s beautiful in her brown skin as I am in mine. Then I pointed out that the in new little mermaid movie, Ariel is black. So princesses can really have darker skin and be insanely pretty. She took a moment to process then went back to painting, shifting the focus to the extra lines instead of the color of the mermaid’s skin.

When that was done, I took a moment too to process what had happened and whether I did make a mistake in explaining. Growing up the Philippines where the beauty standard is being white and thin, I suppose I shouldve expected that view. When most actresses and actors we see in the tv are light skinned, I guess it becomes a general standard of beauty even through the eyes of a 9-year-old kid.

And honestly? This is why representation matters. So little brown skinned girls or black girls can see themselves in the big screen and see that people that look like them are beautiful too. That they can be strong and smart and kind and annoying and loud, etc. They deserve to see that they can take up space in this world as well. And so again, I applaud the casting choices for the Little Mermaid 2023. Little girls all over the world have been seen because of you.

That drawing up there is something we both did that I just cleaned up a little and added glitter. But its the work of two filipino girls who both learned a lot that day.

#share ko lang because I honestly I was a shook LMAO #excuse my continuous brainrot #expect more of them in the immediate future #they are just so #asgdhagshsnakans #cant wait to rewatch tbh #tlm #the little mermaid 2023 #the little mermaid live action #halle bailey #ariel #princess ariel #what would it take for me to draw Eric with Ariel you ask? #when my fascination for how easy drawing tails are as opposed to legs fade #fanart #the little mermaid fanart #halle is ariel #artists on tumblr #digital art #representation