You Got This! by Maya S Penn

Author:Maya S Penn [Penn, Maya S]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781501117664
Google: 7ZvjCwAAQBAJ
Amazon: B010MH1HES
Publisher: Gallery Books
Published: 2016-04-11T23:00:00+00:00

Standing Out from the Crowd

I’ve always worn my hair natural—I’ve never even thought about having it relaxed at any point in my fifteen years on this earth. So one day when I was about eight years old, not long after I’d joined a website where kids could be creative and share stories with each other, I made a short video about my favorite subjects (spelling, Spanish, science, and art), and in it, I had my signature fro going on. A few days later, I noticed the video had received a smattering of likes and comments, but one girl posted that I “needed a perm.” I wasn’t particularly offended at the time, mostly because I didn’t know what a perm was. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t be the only time someone judged me based solely on the way I style my hair.

On a day not long after reading that comment, it snowed in Atlanta, which is an extremely rare, some might even say magical, thing for people who live in the southernmost states. So like virtually every other kid in my neighborhood (and probably the whole metro Atlanta area), I bundled up and headed outside. My hair happened to be braided, and since it was cold, it was tucked up under my hat. After a long day of tossing snowballs and making snow squirrels, I went home, nose runny and hands numb, but happy.

By the next morning, the snow had already begun to melt, so all the kids headed back outside again, determined to enjoy it before it was gone. This time, though, I’d forgone the hat. Once again, my hair was in full-on fro mode. At the time, I thought nothing of this. Long before that perm comment, my mom had instilled in me the idea that my natural hair was beautiful. Sure, it’s fluffy and poofy and tangles easily, but I loved it all the same. That is, until my friend and I popped over to her house for a snack. Her brother happened to be there. This was a kid whom I’d spoken to before; we even had a kind of casual friendship. But he took one look at me and a smug sort of smile crept across his face. “What’s wrong with your hair?” were the first words out of his mouth.

I think I said something along the lines of “This is how I always wear it,” but I was still only eight, and was therefore shocked and a little confused. I didn’t quite know what to think or how I should feel. Insulted? Embarrassed? I think what I really felt was disappointed: his words had made me suddenly uncomfortable. I felt a self-consciousness about my hair that had never been there before. (Luckily, I was able to get over that.)

The people around us—our friends, our acquaintances, and our classmates—are absolutely influential in our lives, in both positive and negative ways. They can push us forward and inspire us to reach for our dreams, or they can hold us back.

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