A sad conversation I just had with my 7-year-old while driving her to school.
Daughter: Your hair looks messy from the back.
Me: Rats. That’s not the look I was going for.
Daughter: What look were you going for?
Me: Beautiful
Daughter: You have to have straight hair in order to be beautiful.
Even though I know that was just her honest-kid response to what society has taught her, as a mixed-race author, I vowed then and there to write more absolutely gorgeous characters with wildly curly hair… (that sometimes, maybe, even looks messy from the back). :)
