The Belgian photographer and filmmaker Eva Verbeke credits two prominent stars of popular culture, singers Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears, for shaping her teenage years.
Specifically, Spears had a significant impact on her, as Verbeke mentioned in a recent video call, as she surrounded her with a "special aura that embodied the image of the American girl," as she put it.
For the photographer and many women who experienced their formative years in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the pop starlets represented a clear gateway to an understanding of what life looked like for girls in the United States.
American cultural influence reached them primarily through traditional media such as cinema, television, music videos, and magazines.
Verbeke grew up in a small town called Tienen, located about 70 kilometers from the Belgian capital, Brussels, while her early sources of inspiration were largely drawn from popular magazines such as Vanity Fair, Vogue, and Elle, which she used to get from her local library.
She adds: "The United States is a huge source of popular culture and the myths surrounding it. Visually, that was the first spark of my passion for America. Later, I began watching American television shows about high school students, which was impressive because that life was so different from my world back then."
Two decades later, this relationship with the country's culture and aesthetics, along with her perception of the "American girl" as she imagined it, led to a six-year project where Verbeke photographed 400 young women and girls aged 6 to 18 across 28 U.S. states.
The photographic series titled "Girls of America: On the Edge of a Dream" was released this month in a book by GOST Books, with plans to hold art exhibitions at the De Factory cultural center in Belgium and the Savannah Photography Center in the state of Georgia, USA.
When Verbeke began working on her project in 2018, she had already been living in America for years due to her work as a photojournalist.
Given that her job involved short-term and fast-paced assignments in the political arena, the "Girls of America" project provided her with an opportunity to adopt a more intimate and personal artistic style, allowing her to explore issues related to gender and identity, while reflecting on girls' childhood and challenging the dominant narratives she observed during her own adolescence.
The project also provided direct interaction with the contemporary experiences of young women and girls living in the United States.
Verbeke recalls the moment she captured her first photograph of Jasmine, who was 11 at the time and a member of the cheerleading team "Savannah Sharks": "I remember documenting the first photo and feeling that it was just perfect."
The photographer, who currently divides her time between Brussels and Amsterdam but was living in Georgia at the time, adds: "In that cheerleading school, where sparkly fabrics shimmered everywhere... the scene exceeded the imagination of my younger self."
In that photo, which later became the book's cover, Jasmine appears with blue eye shadow that matches her team's outfit details while looking into the camera lens.
Her youthful features were strikingly clear, breaking the stereotype of cheerleaders as established by screens during Verbeke's teenage years, which were marked by overt sexualization.
In each photoshoot, the photographer introduced herself to potential participants through open calls directed at schools, clubs, youth groups, and local organizers.
Driven by her insistence that the girls' desire to participate should come from within themselves, and that the series should not be entirely shaped by her own vision, she refused to select participants at random, inviting teens and younger girls to take their photos holding an item or wearing a piece of clothing that expressed their personality.
In addition to cheerleading team members, Verbeke photographed members of performance bands, various sports teams, and girls' scout groups, while other participants chose to appear in the photos with their pets, wearing their favorite clothes, or alongside their closest friends.
The photographer remarks on the significance of personal possessions and their role in empowering girls: "It's entirely different from our view of women in art, or how they have been portrayed throughout history, where women were expected to marry, or were inspirations for artists, or daughters of noble families."
She continued: "In the past, their names were never mentioned, and they didn't get to choose what they wore; it was imposed on them or crafted from the artist's imagination. So it was important to try to change this approach and convey the message: 'I care about how you want to be seen by others.'"
By engaging with the girls and learning about their interests and self-perceptions, Verbeke realized that communication was a fundamental element of the project.
She explains: "Young women are often not taken seriously, but my genuine interest as an adult turned it into a beautiful interaction. The girls often wanted someone to listen to their opinions, simply."
She continued, referring to the endless news cycle available on platforms like Instagram and TikTok: "They feel a great responsibility; I've heard many girls talk about their fears regarding climate change or wars. This generation receives an enormous amount of information, a reality that is completely different from what I experienced growing up."
Although those same conversations are not included in the book "Girls of America," they contributed to shaping the project by establishing trust between the photographer and the participants, which forged the connecting thread of Verbeke's warm style.