Can curly be cool?

When curly-haired Divya Anand was growing up, she had to deal with all kinds of nicknames, including Maggi, baal ki dukaan and jhaadu. "I hated my thick, frizzy hair because it was so unmanageable. We didn't have any representation of curly-haired people in books, movies or pop culture," recalls Anand, who's written a children's book, I Hate My Curly Hair (Puffin). The seeds of it emerged at a picture book writing workshop three years ago where she had to create a story overnight; "The story would be about a curly-haired character struggling to deal with her locks. My aim was to create a spunky protagonist who goes from hating her hair to accepting herself the way she is, through a fun incident."

This little gem highlights the issue of body shaming in our society. "Kids can be cruel. I've struggled with accepting my hair, and have friends who still cannot bear to step out without straightened hair because society has drilled it into their heads that curly hair is messy," she elaborates, adding, "I realised how important stories around self-acceptance are for kids these days. During the lockdown, I've been doing sessions with children where I learned that kids have been body-shamed with names like 'pizza face', 'stork', 'duck walk 'and more. It's especially telling that they would only share these confidentially and didn't want others in the conversation to know who it was about because these nicknames make them feel sad and angry."

Rujuta Thakurdesai retained the coir-like texture of the hair throughout the book. Illustrations/Rujuta Thakurdesai

The book, written in rhythmic verse, comes to life with Rujuta Thakurdesai's illustrations that sync with the protagonist's coming-to-terms chronicle, she says, "I could relate to it as most of us have experienced body image issues. I could visualise the protagonist in the image of Divya and a few of my curly-haired friends including my best friend. I had fun with exaggerating her struggles and adding more drama to it."

Another impact that Anand hopes this book will have is to instill empathy in children. Her 10-year-old niece was one of its first readers, and was curious to know if the story was based on real-life incidents. "I told her that the story was fictional, but I've been called all the curly nicknames. She replied, 'If you were 10 years old, I would be your best friend. And I'd make sure nobody ever called you any names and you knew that your hair is perfect so you never felt sad'."

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