What We Did to Each Other

In the early 2010s, seventeen-year-old Yesenia Rivera dislikes features and circumstances that make her feel unable to belong with either Mexican or white girls at school. When her mother’s job moves them to the Pacific Northwest, Yesenia decides to remake herself. She uses skin-lightening cream, blue contacts, blonde dye, and the name Jessie to pass as white at her new school. The change brings the popularity she had wanted, but mistakes risk exposing her. Guillermo Rivera, called Willy by classmates, also stands out at their mostly white high school.