Jewish American Princess.
My mother told me once that she grew up pretending to be dumb so boys wouldn’t hate her. She is 50 years old, and she doesn’t do that anymore. She doesn’t change herself for men. Maybe she realized that it was useless —even the men that hate her tell me she’s the smartest person they know.
Jewish American Princess.
Last week I did my makeup at 10pm, thinking my roommates had gone to sleep. I flattened my eyebrows, I made my cheeks dark brown and pink, I painted my lips a deep, rosy red, I put on a wig. My jawline, a jumble of sharp lines and hard angles, softened right before my eyes. I realized that I had a woman’s face — I had my mother’s face.
You can read the rest of my submission, and the rest of the zine, here.
Alex Verman Green 