The Girl Who Wanted to Be a Star
“This is a photograph of me as I wish I looked all the time. Then I might still have a chance of getting to Holywood. But at present, I’m afraid, I usually look quite different.”
On October 18, 1942, in the quiet of the Secret Annex, Anne Frank wrote a diary entry that reveals a side of her we rarely see: her inner self-consciousness and her youthful dreams of fame. She had come across a photograph of herself that she particularly liked. It was, she wrote, a photograph of herself “as I wish I looked all the time.” Her next line is a poignant blend of hope and self-doubt. “Then I might still have a chance of getting to Holywood,” she wrote, a dream that feels so utterly normal for a teenager. But she quickly added, “But at present, I’m afraid, I usually look quite different.” This is the voice of a girl who, despite her immense talent and spirit, was still insecure. She was a teenager who worried about her appearance and dreamed of a glamorous life, just like any other girl her age.
This entry is a beautiful, if heartbreaking, reminder of her humanity. It shows us that even in the most extreme circumstances, Anne was still just a girl. She wasn’t a symbol of the Holocaust yet; she was a girl who dreamed of being a movie star, a girl who had a picture of herself that she felt captured her best side.
This diary entry stands as a powerful testament to her spirit. It reminds us that before her story was a tragedy, it was a life filled with youthful dreams and insecurities. It tells us that Anne Frank, in all her vulnerability and ambition, was a girl who, just like so many others, simply wanted to be seen for who she was, and perhaps, for who she dreamed she could be.
