Review of Cool Cuts by Mechal Renee Roe ✊🏿
Cool Cuts (available on Amazon) written and illustrated by New York Times bestselling author Mechal Renee Roe addresses the beauty of natural hair for children. Each page of the book shows a different natural hairstyle with the tagline “I Am Born to Be Awesome.” This sends a powerful message to children who may be picked on about their hair. I remember as a young child that classmates would touch my hair without my permission and even some teachers would remark on its super curly texture. I felt so very uncomfortable and unfortunately, there were very few books to affirm the beauty of hair like mine. Cool Cuts through illustrations and words show the beauty of natural hair for boys and girls.
Hair is such a political issue with Black children as recent headlines reveal. For example, there was the young wrestler forced to cut his locs at a match and several instances of young girls being called out for their natural hair. According to the Global citizen website, 42 states don’t have the legislation to protect the right of mostly Black people who want to wear their natural hair in the workplace.
The CROWN (Create a Respectful and Open Workplace for Natural Hair) Act was put together in 2019 by the manufacturer of Dove and several Black female leaders to eliminate discrimination when it comes to wearing afros, locs, and braids, hairstyles worn predominantly by Black people. (Please click Sign the Petition to add your name to support this legislation.)
My favorite part of the book is the last page where it shows the words “I Am Born to Be Awesome” with an illustration of a crown and pictures of products used to style natural hair.
Roe also wrote and illustrated a book about the first Black US Vice President Kamala Harris, called Super Heroes Are Everywhere! She has written numerous books to extol the importance of self-acceptance including Happy Hair. You can follow Roe on social media @happyhairgoals black children.
Candace Waller is the author of, What Goes Around Comes Around the sequel Good Things Comes, and the upcoming book Lessons I Learned From Loving You, A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Healing.