I grew up in a Black family in a predominantly white town, attended predominantly white schools, and was surrounded by predominantly white people. I say this as someone who is not white, but who was plagued with centering whiteness, even as it rejected me. I create work in an attempt to understand the systems that allowed this to happen and to document my practice of leaving that self behind. The work born from this reconnects me to the childhood I could have had as a little Black girl. One where I could collect sneakers, speak freely, have crushes, and play with fashion and jewelry without the fear of being seen as ghetto, as a stereotype— as Black. In my sculpture, I work with objects that are iconic to Black youth, such as Air Force 1s, Gangster Looney Tunes, and Hot Cheetos, and transform them into intentionally "Black" by implementing and subverting the racist stereotypes attached to them—the very same stereotypes I feared. By doing so, I reclaim these fears by celebrating their Blackness without the influence of internalized racism.