A true artist is someone who finds their own form of self-expression, and ‘Emily’s Do’, starring Emily Sewell Smith, is someone who uses her hair, makeup, and clothing as her mediums to bring out her inner expressions. Gary Beeber is the director who met Emily at a Front Street Art Studio in Dayton, Ohio and has created this documentary to highlight Emily’s unique approach to her own artistry.
The first moment you see Emily, her hairdo is very extravagant and unorthodox. She had so many different brightly coloured hairstyles with unique art designs put onto her hair and her clothing. Future pop, aka Kawaii fashion are her main influences from Japan that helped shape her styles and creativity in her designs.
Emily considers herself to be different from the norm of what other people generally look as well as her choices in her fashion, but she knows who she is and is still human like anyone else. Emily grew up in a normal household with long blond hair and was pretty much living what a perfect kid’s life would look like. Personality-wise as she got older, she started to find herself as a bit of a weirdo from the rest, but she was okay with herself when she became her true self to this day.
The documentary had asked the obvious question about what other’s think of her look and personality. The answers Emily give are polarizing responses from people. Mainly the older white generation would judge her for not looking and being “normal”. Her mother is also part of that group, and has a greater affect to her opinion, when Emily stated that her mother once told her that she cries to herself knowing her daughter is the way she is today. In Emily’s opinion, she is happy with herself and her choices and is saddened to know that her mother would miss out on a part of who she is today.
This sentiment may be relatable for a lot of the people who feels the same disconnect with their parents when they had certain expectations of their children and could not accept them for who they are today compared to what they knew who they were when they were younger. It’s an unfortunate situation to be in, especially when a parent fails to see past that how they look and act and look at the bigger picture of their child just trying to be.
Watching the responses Emily gives to the questions asked in the documentary really demonstrates that she is confident and loves herself for who she is. Even though there are a lot of negativities in her childhood life and to the people whom she does not even know judge a book by its cover before getting to know her first. Emily has found herself surrounded by people she knows that would support her and bring that positive light into her life. Her husband is one of her biggest supporters too.
There’s a lot of respect in what Emily does for herself in life. Not a lot of people out there end up doing what they love to do and feel they have to tow the line to act a certain way to be considered normal or perfect. Truth is, there is no such thing as normal or perfect in anyone. Those who judge others are likely projecting their own insecurities onto others because of how it affects them, or much like Emily’s mother, makes her look bad to herself, and possibly to her own peers.
For anyone who watches this documentary about Emily, this is a great example of reminding you to do things that give you life and joy. Something that would motivate you to wake up in the morning and use your own self-expression on the time that life has given you to live. There’s an expression that goes, “We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” (Quote by George Bernard Shaw). In reality, Emily has never forgotten who she is since she was younger. She has found herself in a place where she can continue to find peace and happiness in her life, because she knows very well that it is her decisions that she made for herself.