This hand drawn animated short possesses a multitude of different characters, but has one very simple premise: the characters are sad and cry their tears into an anthropomorphic beaker. In the film, I wanted to reference the power struggle in the viewers’ consumption of these sorrowful cute characters, all of which do not only evoke ‘warm and fuzzy feelings’, but also ‘ugly or aggressive feelings’. Drawing upon Sianne Ngai’s theory, “cuteness is not just an aestheticization but an eroticization of exaggerated powerlessness, passivity, and vulnerability, evoking tenderness for “small things”, but also, sometimes, a desire to belittle or diminish them further.

STICKER GIFS

I designed sticker-like decorative animations that are scattered throughout the film to further the teen girl diary aesthetic. They take the form of reusable gifs that convey simple ideas and motions.