In this piece, I stumble across the wonders of natural hair and after, try to convince my mother to let me go natural.
Beauty
Polished
At 11:32 on a typical Saturday night, a mom and daughter chat while doing their nails.
pretty vain
About loving your pretty.
Beauty By Heart
There are many stigmas surrounding body image and beauty standards to the point where it has become underestimated. This poem is written through the lens of a girl who experiences it but finds strength to overcome it.
Nesting Doll
Imagine being in a room with your younger self. What would you tell them?
Behind doors are secrets (to discover or not)
A liminal space I found in my school, and what I left there.
I used to hate the rain
Acceptance comes after the storm. It poured and poured.
Perfect Woman
In correlation with the theme, this piece was written to show the roles women are often desired to play and to be in.
Monolid
This piece describes my experience growing up with beauty standards. It highlights my first encounter with eyelid tape and the contrast between East Asian and Western notions of beauty.
Love Yourself; The Touch of Darkness
Oh beautiful rose
stemmed into the ground.
Note to Self
“Note to Self” is a poem that was written in the midst of a wave of high self-esteem that shows itself rarely. This is when the power of Melanin Beauty reveals itself unapologetically.
Dedicated to my Natural Hair
Dedicated to my Natural Hair By Jayola Reid My video conveying the significance of natural hair is one that I consider necessary for everyone to watch. Black women’s natural hair…
For The Culture: The Black Hair Edition
This is a trailer for a podcast episode that will tackle the appropriation of Black hair in America. Kim Kardashian, a woman of major influence, appropriated Black hair when she wore box braids and called them “boxer braids.” I found it so offensive that I wanted to explore it and open up a conversation about it. I wanted to dismantle the cultural significance that was being ignored— and potentially lost. This podcast was my chance to be truthful about what matters to me: the intersection of hair and my identity.