Rick McGinnis: The Illusion of Glamour

Rick McGinnis writes:

Michaela DePrince’s story is even more remarkable. An orphan in Sierra Leone, she found a discarded magazine that contained a picture of a ballerina in her tutu and point shoes. It “represented freedom, it represented hope, it represented trying to live a little longer,” she recalled later. The little girl tore the picture out and hid it in her underwear. Adopted by an American couple, she began studying dance, and in 2012 joined the Dance Theatre of Harlem as a ballerina.

“I was so determined to be like that person on the magazine,” she said.