(Featured Post) “Wearing my hair natural is making me more self-confident in my identity and firm in my belief that we can be great in our natural state…”

“Wearing my hair natural is making me more self-confident in my identity and firm in my belief that we can be great in our natural state. I identify as a black woman, especially attending a predominately white institution (PWI) like American University. It makes me more strong in my identity because my hair shows that I’m proud of my heritage and that I’m not necessarily trying to assimilate even though...

“I knew that wearing my hair curly sent a message…”

*This is Blooming Queens first featured post! Featured posts indicate that we know someone personally or contacted an individual to request an interview after meeting them in person. More often than not, we’re interviewing women who we meet on the street, but we’d be remiss to not acknowledge the women who we personally know are great representations of Blooming Queens. This woman, in particular serves as a reminder to Carla to always own her voice in the workplace and not be afraid to be bold. 

“Figuring out my curls took a while, but I mainly wore my hair curly instead of straight while in college. I realized that some men would only talk to me when my hair was straight, so I knew that wearing my hair curly sent a message about the person I wanted to attract which was someone who would appreciate my hair in it’s natural state just as much as when it was straightened.

I wear my hair down in all of it’s curly fabulousness. In IT, people like it because I have big hair and I’m typically one of a few women in my department. I never felt like I had to change my hair, however. At my current organization, people think that my hair looks beautiful.”