A young girl with a teddy bear and a lollipop in her hands looks up into a mirror to see an image of an older girl holding a cigarette and bottle of alcohol staring back down at her. This black and white image is a sketch on paper, with no author’s name to claim it or a title to identify it. Although it is certainly not a highly regarded or advanced work of art, this image has many symbols and variables that allow it to convey a unique message to each individual viewer.  There are numerous ways to interpret this image, and they vary greatly based on how the reader views the relationship between the little girl and the reflection in the mirror. By altering how we view their relationship, two different main stories can be told with this image: a story of growing up and a story of caution.

By assuming that the little girl is looking at an older version of herself in the mirror, this image can be interpreted as telling the heartbreaking story of a girl growing up. The lollipop in the little girl’s left hand symbolizes the childlike innocence and happiness that the girl had when she was younger and has since lost. In the little girl’s left hand is a teddy bear, which comforts children when they are sad or afraid. Now that the girl has grown up, she has had to find comfort in alcohol and cigarettes. The younger girl’s hair and outfit are very neat and well done, something a child does not normally do on their own. This shows how the girl had someone to take care of her and guide her when she was younger, but now that she is older and on her own she struggles to stay organized and in control. The older girl’s frizzy and curly hair represents this sense of being out of control and shows how there are so many possibilities and thoughts that are all entangled and messy in her mind, while the younger one’s straight hair shows how her path so far has been laid out for her and straightforward. The older girl also has much less clothing than the younger version, this shows how the older one feels vulnerable and exposed in the world. The older girl is looking down that the child with tears in her eyes because she remembers how it felt to be young and ignorant and happy, and she is mourning the loss of her childhood. The little girl’s face is hidden, showing how the older girl is unsure about how her younger self would react to her now. 

Analyzing this image from the perspective that the little girl is looking at someone else in the mirror, some influential person like an older sister or perhaps her mother, gives this image a very cautionary and tragic message. Lollipops can symbolize things that have short-term rewards, but long-term consequences, much like the cigarette the older girl is holding. This shows how the little girl sees the older one smoking, and is likely to do the same. Similarly, the little girl’s teddy bear is mirrored by the bottle. The little one sees how the older girl drinks to find comfort and peace, and is likely to copy that behavior in the future as well. In the image, the little girl is literally looking up at the older girl, representing how the older girl is a role model that the child admires. The older girl is looking down in sadness because she does not want the little girl to see her like this and become like her. The older girl’s appearance is very disheveled and messy, while the little girl is very well-groomed and cute in a little dress with her hair pulled back. This shows how even though the older girl is struggling to keep up her own appearance and keep her life in order, she is still putting energy into taking care of the little one, to make sure she looks good and knows what she is supposed to do. 

This image is full of symbols and it is simple enough to allow many different interpretations of it. The fact that the little girl is looking into the mirror and seeing the older girl reflected is significant because it gives perspective to how the little girl is feeling. This is also why the little girl’s face is not shown: it gives the reader the ability to assign different reactions and emotions to her. By determining the relationship between the two characters in the image, two very different stories are told. By looking at this image as a story of growing up, the two characters being the same person, the reader can see how we change as we mature. By looking at this as a cautionary tale, the characters are different people, the reader can gain a sense of how children see their role models and how they are likely to imitate them. Though these two stories are the main way to analyze this image, they are not limited to precisely how they are told here; they have numerous interpretations based on how the audience chooses to see it.