I have to be honest and say when I first saw the trailer for this documentary, my initial reaction was “Oh, a story about how hard it is to grow up extremely beautiful? Sounds like a rough life.” But yet I still found myself drawn to watch it, and I’m glad I did.

I knew virtually nothing about Brooke Shields beforehand. I of course was familiar with her guest starring role on Friends and an arc she did on Law and Order: SVU. I had also heard of Blue Lagoon and maybe seen an old modeling photo of her here and there. But her life story and also career story were all brand new to me. And it basically comes down to a story of a person who was taken advantage of her entire life. Everyone around her was always just looking out for themselves and how Brooke and her beauty could benefit them, without stopping to think about how it was impacting her.

My initial reaction wasn’t wrong, it was just cynical when it should have been sincere. It is hard to grow up extremely beautiful. Sure, being beautiful does make life easier in some ways. Many people now talk about “pretty privilege”. But also, you are just told your whole life that your only value is the way you look and that’s something you never earned or asked for and also something that may not last. Beauty is such a commodity and everyone wanted a piece of Brooke. She became less of a person and more of a marketing tool. Her own mother referred to her as “a work of art” that people should look at. Look at, but not listen to. Brooke talks about how this mindset really affected her ability to have any agency as a person and feel like anyone cared what she had to say because most people just wanted to look at her. Like much of the documentary, I think that applies to most women in the world who struggle to find their voice because society makes them feel like they don’t deserve to be heard.

While using Brooke’s journey as an example, many of the experts in the 2 part series talk about how women are viewed and treated. I found all of their points really interesting and felt like this helped the documentary to connect, because while most of us cannot relate to Brooke’s journey, we can relate to navigating through society’s views on women. The series also digs into the entertainment industry and how the toxicity of the industry and celebrity culture affected Brooke throughout her life. 

I was both fascinated and horrified by Pretty Baby. Some of the interview clips of the things these old men said to a young girl and the inappropriate and pretty much illegal movie scenes and photoshoots that were somehow allowed to take place really show how Brooke was failed by so many people every step of the way. Even now, 45 years later, she’s still processing and unpacking the damage that was done. While things have changed since then, they also haven’t. Society still puts too big a premium on beauty from a very young age that gets younger and younger as social media grows. Even watching the documentary, I found myself distracted from time to time by how outrageously gorgeous Brooke was and is. We’re all conditioned to focus on appearance. I think Pretty Baby is important viewing to remember that being beautiful should never be your only defining quality, especially as a woman in today’s world.

2023 Count: 6 seasons, 23 movies, 1 special