While trends are not always something I enjoy, there are trends worth celebrating. Of the current trends I highly appreciate are groups and discussions that encourage embracing naturally curly hair, and curvy bodies. It was about time someone stood up against these beauty standards. A girl doesn’t need to have a perfect shape or straight hair to be accepted or beautiful. Someone had to encourage girls to feel good about themselves and embrace their differences.
Being a mother of a seven-year-old girl who has curly hair and a curvy body, my life became so much easier after those discussions and support groups. My daughter used to compare herself to female cartoon characters and Barbie dolls, and question herself. Why are all those bodies perfect? Why do they always have straight, blonde hair? What’s wrong with curly hair? But movements like those made it easier for her to see more realistic beauty standards.
I found that we as parents also play a huge role in our children’s self confidence, and how they think of themselves. We control their world and life perceptions way more than we could imagine.
I kept searching for a Barbie doll that has dark, curly hair and is not a size zero.
I thankfully found out one day that Barbie had released a curvy-bodied doll with curly hair. Hallelujah! This was a milestone in my life to show my girl that Barbie dolls don’t need to have blonde, straight hair nor a size zero body. This affected her confidence big time.
Since then, I have been trying to make choices that encourage embracing these differences, so I got a dark-skinned Barbie doll. Even though my daughter has fair skin, I wanted her to understand that people have different skin colors and are all of them are beautiful.
I also encouraged her to appreciate beauty in her friends, and always see the best in their differences because I knew that this would indirectly affect her self-perception.
The point is we need to show our kids the examples that make them embrace their differences, and enjoy it as well. Now she feels lucky she that has curly thick hair because it is “unique”. Embracing differences has to come from within; I can’t expect others to like my curvy body if I personally dislike it.
So to make kids reach this point of enjoying how different and special they are, we need to make the effort. Highlight the things that lead them to think they are different and beautiful. Make sure they don’t stereotype others, and teach them that differences are what make life more enjoyable.
My daughter used to compare herself to female cartoon characters and Barbie dolls, and question herself. Why are all those bodies perfect?