“The Bird’s Papaya”, latest feature in “The Kit” is striking not for what it reveals, but for what it conceals. The images are low-resolution, the retouching restrained but telling. The audience is invited to see “realness,” so long as it’s aspirational, thin and in an expensive coat. Sarah Nicole Landry appears to be happy with her new look. Accepting her “real” face, now that she’s thin again. The irony is that Landry’s newfound comfort in her reflection arrived only after she returned to a smaller frame. Her years of hyper-filtering, the dramatic claims of PMDD and despair seem now less about vulnerability than vanity.

I’m still alarmed by the women who endorsed Sarah’s narrative: Alicia McCarvell, Tracy Moore, Meredith Shaw…they all mastered the same form of illusion. Each woman built a brand on confidence while relying on ring lights, smoothing apps, and digital edits to sustain it. They championed authenticity through algorithms, turning distortion into a lifestyle. They built an empire of self-love that depends on self-deception. Their audience was never truly buying empowerment; they were buying proximity to the women who had solved the riddle of being enough.

As Sarah steps into the air of thin privilege, a space with far less tolerance for vulnerability. Sarah may discover what her former persona protected her from. The public’s sympathy has limits, especially for thin, polished, financially comfortable women. And truthfully, the Canadian and media world that Sarah’s desperately trying to enter… well, it’s almost dead (thanks to people like her), and if she tries in the USA, her face card may decline.

#sarahnicolelandry #thebirdspapaya #Traitorscanada