Monstrous Me

“A Look in the Mirror”

When Ariel was a disabled and disfigured child of three years old, a bad babysitter brought over a bag of weed, her boyfriend, and a VHS of A Nightmare on Elm Street. From under the coffee table, through the railings, Ariel saw themselves in that Zenith television, in the face of Freddy Krueger, and decided there was agency in being a monster rather than a martyr.