Growing up, girls are bombarded with messages like fix your “frizzy hair” or “big nose”. Their friends, parents, social media, and even beauty products are a constant reminder of their imperfections.

This can lead to overwhelming self-doubt that makes it impossible to see their real beauty.

Dove has a mission to ensure the next generation grows up enjoying a positive relationship with the way they look.

Dove wanted to show this literally with beautiful portraits for girls covered up by those thoughts and words that ruin their confidence.

Dove’s message is always about empowering women & girls and celebrating their real beauty. They always feature real women, never models.

We needed to find 3 girls that had never been filmed before and were willing to discuss the challenges they face around self-esteem and have their image portrayed to millions of people.

The casting process was 3 fold:

1. Reaching out to find a long list of girls aged 11 to 16 who had never been on camera before, this was a key requirement from Dove. We reached out to family and friends of people we new as well as social media

2. Inviting these girls to a call back session with the casting director to discuss the nature of the film, the subject matter and their experience – we had quite a few drop out at this stage because of the nature of the filming being so challenging

3. 2nd call back with the director to discuss their experiences and develop a relationship to be able to move forward with final 3 selection and filming