Mirrors are a technology of the self that allow their beholders to see a part of themselves as others might see them. Compact mirrors are considered an initiation into womanhood and represents tools of self-care. These tools become meaningful to us through use and personalisation. People are naturally drawn to reflective surfaces and take pleasure in looking as a particular sign of consciousness and sociability. The duality of self-awareness is one of position, meaning who is performing and who is watching. Tools like compact mirrors are a resource in the “coming out” process and allow communities to create alternative spaces to practice and perform identities. Clothing and makeup transform the boundaries of self-articulation and accentuate identity through its accessibility and flexibility. 

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Performances of identity often prompt judgements on another’s body. Companies use their products to promote representations that feed insecurities. Their advertising produce an intangible ideal that is upheld as natural and normal. Using products, and therefore consuming ideals, is dependent on a production of normativity and articulation of self-awareness that has embodied notions of Realness. Self-care is the medium of women’s resistance; a tool in becoming revolutionary bodies that produce their own liberation against the objectification of the gaze. Through One of Us, we invite you to reflect on yourself in the pages of a zine. It means disidentifying with heteronormative ideals and distancing yourself from what is real, by dreaming about what could be.