00:04What I really thought when I shaved my head that I was going to look in the
00:07mirror and really see myself for the first time and that did happen, but then
00:11after a while I realized you're never really going to see your true self in
00:14the mirror. It's always going to come out from the inside, and now we're going to be from the outside.
00:25I've been asking myself that the question of you know why is hair such a
00:29big deal to women. It's something that we see all the time. We have ever since we
00:33were little girls commercials with women with like really long beautiful hair.
00:38I struggled with an eating disorder for a little bit and that was based more on
00:43self-confidence and looking in magazines and then wanting to be these women.
00:47So I was always the pretty black girl like you're pretty for a black girl you have
00:51nice hair for a black girl and I hated that comment that would always follow
00:55any compliment I received not only was I being objectified by men but I was being
00:59fetishized by my friends and I didn't appreciate it. I was very attached to my
01:03hair and I started to do a little more soul searching and realizing that my hair
01:09didn't define who I was. The feedback I got was a lot of like wow that's really
01:14great but like you're gonna grow it out now right because girls shouldn't have
01:18short hair and so there's a lot of back and forth between me and like myself and
01:22being like but I feel beautiful. When I have short hair I'm not hiding behind
01:27anything I'm just expressing like my truest nature. My intention was never to
01:35wow anyone or do anything for anyone else it was more just to kind of shed for
01:40lack of a better term. My mom's reaction wasn't great because I think she was
01:47associating cutting all your hair off with like something traumatizing happening
01:51but it was actually just one of the most empowering moments I've ever had.
01:57It also helped me grow in my confidence I was able to embrace more of who I am.
02:04I didn't do it and say like hey I'm a feminist I did this and say hey I'm an
02:08independent person and I don't need anyone to tell me that I look good because I
02:12know that I'm a decent person on the inside. The journey of finding myself
02:17confidence I guess and finding the beauty that I found from a show kid I couldn't
02:23really anticipate it. It's about defining yourself and not letting the society or
02:27the world or the things around you define you.
