Laura Almstrup's doom-scrolling degradation

How did the concept for your film Virgin Alpha evolve?

Honestly, the answer is unfortunately a lot of late-night doomscrolling.

I’ve always been fascinated by subcultures and the internet as a phenomenon - with all the weird, chaotic and completely unhinged people and content that come with it. Over time I started saving videos I thought were crazy, weird or just deeply dystopian. It basically became this giant trash can of internet content that I initially found hilarious. 

Suddenly there wasn’t much distance between a 13-year-old girl’s skincare routine and OnlyFans content.

I was fascinated by how ridiculous we are as human beings. “Watch me do this, watch me do that.” But slowly the content started changing. It became much more political, much more extreme. Suddenly there wasn’t much distance between a 13-year-old girl’s skincare routine and OnlyFans content.

The more videos I collected, the more I realised just how much of it was actually aimed at children and teenagers. That hit me pretty hard. 

It’s also important to me to say that although this film follows a young girl, these platforms affect boys just as much.

I remember thinking, “Okay, if I, as an adult, think this is an incredibly overwhelming place – full of people telling me how to fix myself, how to become prettier, happier, more successful – what must this feel like for a fourteen-year-old?”

It’s not a new idea. Plenty of people have been trying to raise the alarm for years. But somehow the conversation always seems to fade away again.

Do you think there’s enough awareness of how the internet shapes the ways girls see themselves and their bodies?

I don’t think we’re lacking awareness. I think we’re lacking proportionality. Our response simply doesn’t match what we already know about the scale of the problem.

We have years of research showing that social media can profoundly affect young people’s mental health and development. We know these platforms are designed to be addictive. We know they’re linked to anxiety, depression, body dissatisfaction, eating disorders, self-harm, misogynistic radicalisation and, in some cases, suicidal ideation. We know they reward outrage, comparison and appearance over character. And yet, we still don’t seem to respond with the urgency this deserves.

It’s important for me to say that although this film follows a young girl, I don’t see this as a girls’ issue. These platforms affect boys just as much. They’re exposed to impossible standards of masculinity alongside enormous amounts of misogyny, hate and extremist content. Girls and boys are being pulled in different directions, but they’re both growing up inside systems that profit from insecurity and division.

The idea of ‘the girl’ is still deeply connected to innocence. But the moment she enters puberty, she’s thrown into this Madonna-whore complex.

That’s the part I struggle to understand. I don’t understand why we’re not more emotionally affected by it. Why parents aren’t angrier. Why adults aren’t louder. We talk about it, we agree it’s a problem, and then we carry on as though it’s inevitable. We don’t behave like people who truly believe what the evidence is telling us. 

Director Laura Almstrup on the set of Virgin Alpha.

Your film’s use of religious iconography alongside hypersexualised content conveys the conflicting messages facing young girls today. What influenced those choices?

Part of what interested me was showing how an algorithm evolves – how something that begins as seemingly innocent can slowly develop into something catastrophic.

What’s so absurd is that everything a girl does is viewed through a sexual lens.

I’ve also been fascinated by the Virgin Mary for years. Even though she’s a figure who is hundreds of years old, she still feels incredibly relevant in the way we think about young women today. The idea of “the girl” is still deeply connected to innocence. But the moment she enters puberty, she’s thrown into this Madonna-whore complex. As a young girl myself, that contradiction was something I could never make sense of.

During my research I also noticed a huge boom in Christianity on social media, alongside content romanticising traditional gender roles and older ideals of female virtue. It made those ideas feel surprisingly current.

I feel like I’m seeing more and more content, especially music videos, that’s becoming increasingly reductive.

What I saw on the internet was that the same story kept repeating itself: how the girl should be, act and be perceived. First we’re expected to be innocent and pure. Then suddenly we’re supposed to put ourselves on display, perform our sexuality and desirability. We’re also told that same sexuality is dangerous, shameful or somehow wrong.

What’s so absurd is that everything a girl does is viewed through a sexual lens – whether she’s expressing sexuality or deliberately not expressing it. Both her presence and her absence become sexualised.

It’s still incredibly rare to see a successful female artist who isn’t expected to become this flawless fantasy. The rules simply aren’t the same for men.

That’s what I wanted to show. What I find so frustrating is that the girl, still today, in 2026, continues to be understood through the same logic as the Virgin Mary. She’s defined by her relationship to sexuality, either innocent and pure, or sexual and shameful. It’s the same contradiction, just in a contemporary form. She’s never simply allowed to exist. I find that very disheartening.

Do you think the film, advertising and music video industries are complicit in sending mixed messages to women and girls?

Absolutely. I also think there are a lot of people genuinely trying to do better. But at the same time I feel like I’m seeing more and more content, especially music videos, that’s becoming increasingly reductive.

In my world, women are sexy. Human beings are sexual. I love Madonna. I love Sabrina Carpenter. I love dance and sensuality. That’s not the problem.

The problem is that so much of what we’re sold as “sex” isn’t actually sexuality at all. It’s performance. It's money and fast likes. It’s attention and views.

I keep seeing female artists have a breakthrough, release one huge hit… and then bang. Suddenly they’re in a black latex bodysuit singing on all fours.

It’s still incredibly rare to see a successful female artist who isn’t expected to become this flawless fantasy. The rules simply aren’t the same for men.

I keep seeing female artists have a breakthrough, release one huge hit… and then bang. Suddenly they’re in a black latex bodysuit singing on all fours. Do I even need to mention that I’ve never seen a man in that position on stage?

Can you share details of the shoot? Did any unexpected challenges arise?

Finding the girl was a challenge. A lot of parents were understandably worried about bringing their daughter into a role like that. Everyone was agreeing and wanted me to succeed in it, it just shouldn’t be their exact child performing it. But we knew that she was out there and I don’t think i could have found a better girl than Hedvig. She was a true powerhouse.

None of us wanted to accidentally recreate the very sexualised gaze we were trying to critique.

We spent a lot of time talking about how we wanted to portray our young protagonist. None of us wanted to accidentally recreate the very sexualised gaze we were trying to critique. Even though the film follows her changing relationship with the content she’s consuming, we never wanted the camera itself to objectify her.

I honestly don’t think we would have arrived at the same solutions if it hadn’t been for the exact team we had around the project. Our cinematographer Gerda Falk, producer Mette Jermiin, makeup artist Louise Bruun, AI-artist Sally Trier and production designer Frederikke Jermiin all brought incredibly thoughtful perspectives to those conversations.

It was one of those rare productions where everyone was completely invested in making the film better rather than making themselves bigger. 

What’s your background and route into directing?

I completely fell in love with movies as a teenager and knew I wanted to work in film. I wanted to live inside those worlds and spend time with those characters.

I didn’t actually know directing was a job but after a year at a Danish film folk high school [folk schools are non-formal, residential schools for adults], I got a job in scripted production house as a producer assistant.

Talented, generous people who are willing to invest their time and energy into a shared project are worth more than diamonds.

Eventually I got the courage to direct a music video for a friend. We shot it on a phone and borrowed someone’s summer house. It was all very DIY. But that’s where it all started.