This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Harvard chapter.
The Veritones, a favorite among Harvard’s many a cappella groups, covered Beyonce’s “Pretty Hurts” and created a music video which reflects on the challenges Harvard students (and young people everywhere) face.
Check out what Skip Rosamilla, the brains behind the project, says about his motivation for the video and what he hopes it inspires:
“This song speaks the desperate and confused voice of any adolescent – male or female – that goes through the wringer of double expectations, ambiguous rules, no-win social pressures… and how that adolescence doesn’t always get outgrown when our bodies themselves age. “It’s the soul that needs a surgery” is such a heart wrenching yet true line for so many who try fast-fix after trending-fix after self-concocted-fix and get the same results: unhappiness with one’s self.
After I lost my phone in January and only had this song to listen to on repeat on my long 8-10 mile runs, this song haunted me in its raw honesty: so many people are unhappy with themselves, think they aren’t enough, hear voices pulling them every which way except toward self-love. So I thought, this song needs to be heard. And seen. And so the music video you see now is the result of that.
I hoped the visual and audio combo would assist our group in really getting behind a project and providing material that could be used for some greater good.
The music is recorded, the video is finished, and now the final stage is just to partner with a group that seeks to help aid with the many problems listed above, for any age, and specifically for girls who are still growing up. We want every dollar that comes out of this (if any) to go to that organization.
And we want girls (and people) to know that it’s okay to have problems and feel torn and confused, but that there are other ways to feel and people who can help them get there – starting first with themselves.”
We’re definitely all about Skip and The Veritones’ mission. Support them by sharing the music video with friends or purchasing their cover on iTunes.