Impact
Photo: Elad Ackerman
Our mission is to challenge at least one outdated beauty standard.
For way too long, girls and women have been subjected to beauty norms that are narrow, restrictive, and damaging to our health and sense of well-being.
Producer and co-director Ilise Harris recognized the COVID-19 pandemic as a pivotal moment in fashion and beauty history. As salons closed around the world, women began “ditching the dye”, embracing their natural gray in unprecedented numbers. What started as necessity evolved into a global shift—amplified and accelerated by a passionate online community known as Silver Sisters.
Normalizing gray hair for women and girls of all ages opens the door to a much larger conversation about where our ideas around beauty and aging come from-and who they serve.
Your Roots Are Showing weaves these threads together to tell both this story and the broader story of how cultural change happens. The film is a thought provoking and inspiring celebration of beauty, authenticity, and the empowering nature of choice—an invitation to age with intention, curiosity, and joy.
Testimonials
“OMG!! Brilliant Ilise! You’ve created a documentary that serves history and women’s liberation, and that’s no small feat.”
Donna DeMari, Fashion Photographer
First female photographer to shoot the cover of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue
”YRAS was an audience favorite at our MEA, Film Fest because it poignantly and passionately portrays women taking their power back in a culture that is ageist and lookist. I loved it!”
Chip Conley, Founder Modern Elder Academy, NYT best selling author and 3X TED Talk speaker
“What I love about Ilise’s film is that while it’s about hair on a surface level, it is ultimately a movie about choice: who gets to decide what women look like? Why not us? 'Your Roots Are Showing' encourages women to take ownership of how we look and through whose gaze.”
Brooke Berman, writer/director "Ramona At Midlife"
“Losing your hair to chemotherapy is devastating. During my cancer journey, I saw 'Your Roots Are Showing'. The film helped me see my gray hair not as something to hide, but something to embrace. What began as loss ultimately became a silver lining.”
Marie Tassini, cancer survivor