Winner
Jessica Dinning
The Mirror
In an image-obsessed world, a teenage girl’s fight to overcome insecurity about her body and identity is depicted with insight and candour. The subject is highly relevant and the writing is inventive and stylish.
An extract from The Mirror
I followed my friends into the bathroom for our morning routine.
Step 1: Ensure your skirt is just the right length. Not so far above your knees that you’re inviting that detention slip but not so low that only your calves are the star of the show.
As I wriggled my skirt around my belly, I couldn’t help noticing my legs.
They didn’t look like the well-toned limbs that my sporting friends had. They looked a little straight. No curves.
I examined them for a few seconds longer and got annoyed, so I decided to move onto the next step.
Step 2: Take out your phone and bring yourself up-to-date on the latest Instagram stories.
They rolled by like sluggish YouTube ads. The buffering was terrible—Instagram was slow on my brick of a phone. I decided that it wasn’t doing much for my image, so I transitioned to the final step.
Step 3: Review your face in the mirror.
It mustn’t look too beautified—just some cute tendrils here, some clear skin there.
I twirled my hair around my finger until my tendrils were sufficiently curled. They didn’t look that bad—it was just the picture they were framing that wasn’t the greatest.
Plain, boring, ugly me. Okay, I’m not eyesore ugly, but I’m not drop-dead gorgeous either. I can’t change what I look like, no matter how hard I try. And I don’t know what to do about it.
