In second grade, I received my first pair of prescription glasses.Those oval lenses, while improving the images I saw around me, marked a steep decline in the image I saw of myself. Before glasses, I was too nearsighted to see images of my sister calling herself fat in the mirror as she examined her thin body; I was too nearsighted to see magazines lining aisles of grocery stores with covers displaying what a “beautiful” woman looked like. And while...

To the woman at the basketball game, I saw you. I saw the way you looked at us. We were just sitting there, minding our own business, but you made a point to turn around and scoff at the contrast of our skin. Your disapproving eyes traveled the lengths of our bodies, lingering ever so slightly on our interlocked hands then continuing upward to meet my appalled gaze. You quickly turned back around, and thank God, because I don’t...