Role Models (100th post!)

This is my 100th blog post! 

How did that happen?! Either way I am happy it is and that this blog is really taking off. Don't be shy, I know you are out there reading, mostly in Sweden but also out in the world from SA to the US! Leave me comments! Email me! I want to hear from you!

So for this post I want to touch on something that I think is important to address; Role Models.
As human beings we all have this profound need to relate to each other, to connect to each other. And this is especially important when you are a child growing up.

Growing up as a multiethnical (I really struggled with choosing the right word here, because I don't like to define myself as either or of anything) child in a Swedish medium sized city  in the 80's & 90's left me without people to relate to. There were very few people that looked like me and had some of the same issues as me. My mother couldn't understand how to care for my hair, and my father, haha, forget about it! And the worst thing was there was nobody to ask either.

A lot has changed since those times due to globalization and the Internet, and that's a beautiful thing. And finding role models that a mutliethnical child of the 21st centuary in Sweden can relate to is a little easier. If you are a curly haired child growing up in Sweden it's likely you might meet someone that has similar hair and skin color to you. And if you don't, then there's always TV and the internet. And even though mainstream media still shows mostly women with relaxed hair, there are a few that wear their hair natural and prove that it can be done.

What I'm trying to get at is the importance of children to grow up and be "different" in a sense but still have somewhere or someone to look to that tells them that the way they are is okay. To live in Sweden you don't have to have blue eyes and blonde straight hair. You are as much part of Swedish society if you rock a ´fro, have locs, cornrows or whatever else you want to do.

I think that if you are a parent of a curly haired child, and even more so a multiethnical child, you need to be a role model for that child. Even if you don't  have curls. It's up to you as a parent to make sure that your child has people around him or her that she or he can relate to. 'Cause if all your daughter sees are blond Barbies, Lotta på Bråkmakargatan and nobody that looks like her when she's out in society she might grow up thinking that she is not beautiful. The same goes for little boys. This is why this blog is important for me, to help parents help their children to love the curls and frizzes on their head; to love who they are. So don't down play the importance of role models in a child's life. 'Cause hair is a part of our identity. It's not only  what makes us stands out in a crowd, but it is what makes us unique.