Lauren Greenfield


'When you go shopping, its seems never enough no matter how much you get you always just need the next thing that you see. And it kind of for a minute brings you out of whatever you are feeling, or what ever emotions, it kind of numbs you for a minute'

Lauren Greenfield is an acclaimed documentary photographer/filmmaker, who is considered a leader for of youth culture, gender and consumerism. Kids + Money is short film that discusses with young people from many different Los Angeles communities about the role of money, and how it affects their lives. The teens talk about money, about getting it, shopping, learning to live without it and how they are shaped by the culture of consumerism. 



Greenfield returned to LA where she grew up to find out how the culture of money of consumerism had affected the area, and the teenagers who lived there. The film shows kids who tell their stories in a series of interview-based “portraits,” about their relationship with money. Some talk about their love for shopping, talk about their ambitions to become rich and some talk about how money is not important to them. In some of the interviews, they talk about how kids are now being judged on their family’s wealth, rather than their race like previous generations. 

It shows how important money has become, not to just adults, but children. They want to spend, or save, or aim to get more, and I find this surprising. I would never have thought until seeing this, that money was such a bit thing in a child life. Maybe this is just in the LA area, and not in my own surroundings, but to think that kids are thinking these serious matters in their teenage years is shocking to me. I want to talk about my own relationship with spending, concentrating on how I feel encouraged to buy things after watching youtube videos.