The Cost of Beauty

About the Work 3 in 5 kids experience mental health issues from toxic beauty content. So, we set out to highlight the scale of the social media-induced mental health crisis among kids; and inspire the world to demand change by signing the petition supporting the Kids Online Safety Act. The film tells the story of Mary, a real girl who almost lost her life from an eating disorder. However, we didn’t need to shoot her story, Mary already had. Using her own photos, videos, and journal entries, spanning over a decade, the film shows her downward spiral after getting her first phone and joining social media. Set to an emotional female cover of Joe Cocker’s ‘You Are So Beautiful to Me,’ we see how quickly social media shapes Mary’s view of her own beauty, causing her mental health to severely struggle. At the end, we learn this isn’t just Mary’s story. It’s the story of millions of girls. The film concludes with a rallying call for people to sign the Kids Online Safety Act petition. The casting process was extensive. We had to find someone who had not only suffered from toxic beauty standards, but who also documented her downward spiral and was comfortable revealing it to the world. We met over 60 different survivors, spending hundreds of hours reviewing their personal photos, videos, and journal entries. After nearly a year, we cast Mary as our protagonist. The supporting cast were also real survivors, chosen to represent a range of mental health issues. For everyone’s safety, we worked closely with a psychologist who specializes in teen mental health, as well as the Founder of the National Eating Disorder Information Centre. Both remained by our cast’s side throughout production. Dove surpassed its goal of 50,000 petition signatures for the Kids Online Safety Act, resulting in the bill passing in the Senate.