One of the aspects of this documentary that interested me was that you can tell so much from such little snippets of time in this child’s life. We only got to see less than five minutes of this girl at these ages and we are still able to tell so much about her development and the way she thinks about things. When she was a toddler, she was moving around constantly, which shows that at those ages, children have not developed the control over their motor skills. It wasn’t until the age of eight that Ella was able to sit still in her chair throughout the entirety of the footage we saw. Also around the toddler ages, her goals and thoughts seemed to imitate things she saw or heard adults do. One example of this is when she was asked what she wanted to do when she grew up and she responded with putting makeup on. This thought process most likely came from seeing grown up women in her life and noticing that they typically wore makeup, and she wants to fit in with them and grow up herself.
Another jump in development that I recognized was at age eight. Like I previously discussed, it seems as if she had more control over her physical motions, but it also seems that at that age, she became more grounded in reality. When she was asked what she is afraid of, she started bringing up fears that were more realistic and rational, in a way. Some fears that she described were life, growing up, fitting in, and finding friends. When compared to her previous fears when she was younger, which were monsters, these newer fears are more rational and rooted in her reality. At around age eight, she started to gain some independence as well. This can be seen when she answers the question about her and her dad’s relationship. She explains that they fight a lot, which can be interpreted as her wishing to be more separate from her parents and to have a mind of her own. This specific answer to this question seems to be consistent throughout the rest of the film; however it develops more at age 15. When she answered that question at that age, she did say that they fought a lot, but she also mentioned something along the lines of “we always make up”, or “that’s just what people do”. It seems to me that she was able to develop some emotional maturity over those years and that she was maybe being more conscious of her father’s feelings towards that question. It also shows that she’s developed her thinking from the right-wrong perspective. I believe that when she answered that question before, the fact that they fought meant that that was a bad aspect. When she discovers that this is what lots of relationships look like and that the fight always gets resolved, she starts to see it as not right or wrong and that it just is. That is a big jump in emotional maturity.
Another development that stuck out in my mind when reflecting on Ella’s growth was at age eleven when her definition of power changed. At that age, she started describing it in much more detail and with broader concepts. Instead of her just describing it as strength or muscle, she talked about the definition from a global lens and with abstract ideas as well. When asked what she wanted to do when she grew up, she described being an animal activist, which also shows that her lens is no longer simply on her world but on the whole world around her and shows a development of compassion for others as well. She also seemed to branch out and learn new things a year later (around age 12). In this footage, we learned that she not only enjoyed to sing, but she also enjoyed art and learning sign language. I don’t believe that these new hobbies were continued throughout her school career since we didn’t hear about them much after that, but it shows us that at 12 she was trying new things.
One final development I would like to discuss is the transition from age 14 to age 15. In the footage we saw from Ella at 14, she seemed to be depressed and struggling with lots of things, perhaps being overwhelmed with the change to high school. Thankfully, these struggles don’t seem to last because at age 15, she seems to be happier and describes her new friends and how much she enjoys spending time with them. I am curious as to how she was able to get out of this low in her life.
