Let’s be real, power is in who tells the story — but it can also live in who narrates it. Blue Ivy Carter is narrating the audiobook adaption of Hair Love by Matthew A. Cherry — and it’s available right now.
If you rewind your brain to earlier this year, an election win and a pandemic ago, you’ll remember that Hair Love took home the Academy Award for best animated short. It’s no surprise as it’s an important story that follows a father on his journey when he has do his daughter’s hair for the first time.
The main character is seven-year-old Zuri and she has naturally curly hair. Carter, eight-years-old, has faced criticism and shame for her own kinks and coils in her natural hair (by problematic adults in the media — but this is a story for another time), making her a perfect fit to give voice to a journey of loving your hair, an experience so many other little Black girls are all too familiar with. Hair Love celebrates the hair we’re born with, follows a beautiful bond between a father and his daughter as they embrace her hair and will have you weeping tears of empowerment by the end of it.
Can’t get enough of Zuri?
Well, we have some good news for you: a new animated series called Young Love is destined for HBO Max and it follows Zuri, her mom and dad and their cat as they figure their ways through life. The show will be executive produced by Cherry — so, more positive representation is inevitable. That is something worth getting excited about.
Related: Meghan Markle and the struggle among Black women everywhere.
Haven’t seen the Hair Love short yet?
Don’t worry, we got you covered.
