13-Year-Old's Film Imagines A World In Which Gender Roles Are Reversed

When 14-year-old Ella Fields was assigned to make a short film as part of her participation in the Cinematic Arts Academy at Millikan Middle School in Los Angeles last year, she had to think about what she was most passionate about.

“One of the first things that popped into my head was gender stereotypes, and how I truly believe that anyone can wear whatever they want, and how colors should not have any gender associated with them; they are just colors,” the ninth grader, who is also an Outspeak Partner, told HuffPost.

The resulting project was “Stereo,” described as “a film about reversed gender stereotypes,” and it’s been viewed over 1.6 million times to date. In Fields’ film, boys are the only ones who are supposed to wear dresses and girls are forbidden from participating in musical theater, both things the female protagonist yearns to do.

“I mainly just wanted to raise awareness of how stereotypes are meaningless,” Fields says. “Girls can do anything boys can do, and boys can do anything we can, too.”