them to me.
A creative director at the skincare company.
An independent brand strategist.
I wrote everything down.
“Were Maya’s photographs identifiable?”
“Yes.”
“Did you use her name?”
“No.”
“Did you describe her condition?”
“I wrote visible vascular birthmarks.”
My stomach turned.
“You discussed my child’s body in a commercial proposal without telling
her.”
“It was body positivity.”
“No.”
I said.
“It was exploitation wearing a nicer outfit.”
“That’s unfair.”
“You photographed a sixteen-year-old secretly, built a marketing pitch
around the feature she has spent her entire childhood being bullied for,
and then came into my home and told her the same feature ruined your
vacation pictures.”
Gwen went silent.
That contradiction was the part I could not understand.
“Why?”
I asked.
“If you thought her skin represented confidence, why did you humiliate
her?”
Gwen started crying.
At first, I felt nothing.
Then she said:
“Because the client didn’t like
