Dani Contreras in a Nutshell: A Feature (about myself)

Dani Contreras wore a cape to school today, and she read a poem in front of her classmates while wearing it. Her classmates’ eyes followed her, and Contreras took advantage of the spotlight to speak about women;  women in power, women in fear, women unheard. The attention of her peers wasn’t for herself, but instead for a social media campaign she had organized to raise awareness about the hyper-sexualization of women in mass media. Though she’s only 18, Contreras wears the cape in an effort to convince her peers that they don’t have to wait for Superman to rescue them; they can save themselves.

When you talk to Contreras, you’ll notice that she quotes her favorite poets, even in casual conversation. “My lineage is one of women shrinking, making space for the men that surround them,” she’ll say, quoting poet Lily Myers unapologetically. Though this might seem strange, it’s how she copes with standing out like a sore thumb in deeply conservative, patriarchal Dominican society. Poetry gives Contreras authority. Being a writer gives her a platform.

Linda Dayes, a representative from Exeter Academy who conducted Contreras’ admission interview, remembers the student well: “I asked her what she was passionate about, and was very impressed. ‘Words’ was her answer.” Contreras told Dayes that words were a person's greatest legacy, that they shouldn’t be shackled solely to the job of basic conversation, that they should be off exploring the ocean of human expression, using sentences as their vessels. Dayes was shocked to hear Contreras mention Didion, Orwell, and Woolf as kindred outcasts who knew nothing but words as the means to the end of their salvation.

“She was kind of intense, but in a good way,” recollects Dayes.

For all her intensity Contreras is perplexed that her campaign hasn’t been as effective as she thought it would be: “It seems like people want everything on their Instagram feed but activism.” She expresses her plan to combat the negative influences in the media by creating a positive source of information. “My idea was to reverse the outdated version of the phrase ‘damsel in distress’ to damsel in a cape. I wanted to reach out to women and reassure them that the media’s portrayal of their bodies isn’t a direct reflection of their reality.” It seems she underestimated the difficulty of raising a voice against the patriarchy in the media.

Contreras sits stubbornly at her desk, with a pen in hand, baffled by the places that 26 letters can take someone. She stares at a blank document, squinting and thinking, giddy at her own potential. Looking down at her cracked keyboard, she realizes she types too harshly. Contreras will tell you that anger will only add to the raw emotion behind her words. So, scowling and slouching, she writes, pouring every pent-up emotion onto the document worthy of the discussions in her Current Events class for semester two.