Hi my name is Nia and I am 9yrs old. I live with my parents and little sister. We are mostly a happy family doing lots of fun activities together. My little sister and I have long nappy hair and dark brown reddish skin. Mostly I don’t think about how I look or about my hair unless it is a special occasion and my mom or dad presses it. I said earlier that I did not think about my skin and hair, but that is not the whole truth. I should have said that I have been thinking about what it would be like to be white with straight blond hair. I have been daydreaming a lot about straight hair and white skin.

I know that people will think I am pretty if I change my hair and skin. When I watch television it always shows girls and women with straight hair and light skin having more fun and lots of friends. No one says to them how did you get your hair like that and may I touch it? I thought about throwing away my dark black dolls too. My cousin, Jamila, who is eleven told me that she knew a girl who dyed her skin and hair. I wonder how long it will take the dye to work.

No one in my class looks like me and in my entire school only a few people have hair and skin like mine. Not even my teacher who touches my hair and says it’s rough. She does not have dark skin and nappy hair.

I talked to my parents about people asking about my hair and wanting to touch it all the time. They ask me how it makes me feel. I told them it makes me feel weird. My little sister says she just hits then if they touch her hair too much. When you’re nine you can’t get away with hitting people. I know what my parents will say. That I am a beautiful black girl. I don’t tell them what Jamila told me because I know they won’t agree with it. Another idea is to wear my hair pressed all the time. Bad idea, my parent’s will say. I told my parents that this problem feels weird and I think about it a lot. I am starting to think black is ugly even if I know it is not.

I should tell my mom and dad how I really feel and ask to go to my cousin Jamila’s school. Because at this school there are children with many different kinds of hair: nappy, straight, braided, short, long and pressed. Their skin colors are like out of this world.

I talked to my mom, dad and my little sister at dinner tonight. First I cried because I was embarrassed to hate black. My parents told me that Jamila’s school didn’t have all the special classes that my school has. I told them that I didn’t care about the special classes any more. I just wanted to feel better. My sister immediately said that she was switching schools tomorrow. I just love my little sister, she has my back at the right times,

Can you guess what happened? I won’t make you wait. My parents agreed to let us go to Jamila’s school if we would take French lessons on Saturday. Yippee and off we go!