As part of a social experiment conducted by UNICEF’s #ForEveryChild, 6-year-old actor Anano alternated between being nicely dressed to wearing dirty clothes in different settings. The resulting video shows people’s starkly contrasting attitudes toward her depending on what she was wearing.

The experiment began with Anano dressed in a pale pink pea coat, a gray dress, navy tights and a pair of shiny brown ankle boots. She stood on a busy street in Tbilisi, Georgia, and, soon enough, multiple people came up to her expressing concern and offering to help her find her way home. “Do you live near here? Are you lost?” strangers asked her. One man was even seen taking out his cell phone, seemingly about to call for help.

The experiment took a dark twist when Anano’s face was covered in make-up resembling soot and she put on a grubby-looking orange knit cap, mismatched clothes and worn-out sneakers. Not a single person stopped to help her. She was left alone on the street without anyone giving her a second glance. 

The experiment continued in a local restaurant, where Anano walked in wearing a pale pink floral jacket, her hair pulled nicely up into a bun. There, strangers could be seen affectionately greeting her and inviting her to sit with them. One worried woman caressed her cheek while another man offered her money. Anano was hugged by an elderly woman and told jokes by a group of men.

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When Anano changed back to her poverty-stricken appearance, however, she was once again given the cold shoulder. Initially, one woman appeared to be putting her arm around Anano, though she was actually protecting her bag from getting dirty. At one point, a man asked staff to remove Anano from the restaurant.

Anano was extremely upset by people’s reactions to her and left the restaurant in tears. UNICEF had to end the experiment early. “This made me sad. I don’t know. They were all telling me to go away,” Anano said.

UNICEF made the video to bring attention to what it calls “a vicious cycle of disadvantage”.

“Around the world, millions of children are denied these rights and deprived of what they need to grow up healthy and strong — because of their place of birth, because of their race, ethnicity or gender, or because they have a disability or live in poverty,” UNICEF’s 2016 State of the World’s Children report read. It found that 69 million children under the age of 5 will die by 2030 unless the world works toward ending extreme poverty. (sab/kes)