This project became a personal working-through of my own participation in quinceañera culture, evolving from an initial anti-position born of regret about my own quinceañera experience to a more neutral, exploratory stance.  the work questions the ritual of coming-of-age that prepares young women for 'the other big, white dress.' Working from a methodological position of being simultaneously inside and outside the tradition, I approach the documentation like an alien observer while drawing on intimate biographical access. This includes casting my own grandmother—who accompanied me dress shopping for my own quinceañera—into the faux-documentation, blurring the boundaries between personal history and anthropological observation. The camera functions in multiple ways throughout: formal portraiture serves as a jumping-off point, but the work expands to document all the 'making' behind the elaborate performance of femininity. Rather than seeking a 'pure' version of this imported Latin American tradition, the project observes how cultural practices evolve and standardize, maintaining critical distance while acknowledging my own complicity within the very system I'm examining.