{"id":12451,"date":"2014-02-04T11:08:47","date_gmt":"2014-02-04T19:08:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/momservations.wordpress.com\/?p=12451"},"modified":"2014-02-04T11:08:47","modified_gmt":"2014-02-04T19:08:47","slug":"the-early-bird-gets-cute-hair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/momservations.com\/index.php\/2014\/02\/04\/the-early-bird-gets-cute-hair\/","title":{"rendered":"The Early Bird Gets Cute Hair"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>Momservation: <\/b>Do not underestimate the power of cute hair.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\">\u263a\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u263a\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u263a<\/p>\n<p>Next month my baby girl is officially a teenager. I\u2019ve agreed to these terms, but it doesn\u2019t mean I have to like it.<\/p>\n<p>I can still remember the beginning of middle school when I tried to spruce up her wardrobe and give her tips for doing her hair in anticipation of what consumes that female demographic.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMom, I don\u2019t care!\u201d Whitney protested. \u201cI\u2019m not the kind of girl who cares about that stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>God, I wish that would always be true. But many, many moons ago I had once been a teenage girl and uttered those same words to a mother who was trying to get me to shower regularly.<\/p>\n<p>Remembering how quickly I transformed from a kid who pretended to wash my hair to a trend-obsessed teenager begging my mom to let me get a spiral perm I said, \u201cTrust me, Whit. You\u2019re going to care.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Whit looked at me skeptically before walking away. Calling after her I said, \u201cCute hair matters! Just look at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/news\/michelle-obama-bangs\/\">Michelle Obama<\/a>! The biggest news at the president\u2019s inauguration was his wife\u2019s new bangs!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fast forward to last week. Here was the conversation I had with Whit:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhitney, I think we both know you have a serious decision to make.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s time to choose. Do you want to sleep in on school mornings\u2026or do you want cute hair?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut it\u2019s so hard to choose!\u201d she moaned.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI know, I know,\u201d I said patting her shoulder, remembering back to the day when I gave up an extra half hour of sleep for perfectly curled, spiral-permed, \u201880\u2019s hair cemented in place with AquaNet.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFine. Wake me up early tomorrow please.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I withheld the \u201cI told you so.\u201d Instead I found my 8<sup>th<\/sup> grade school picture\u2014evidence I once was a teenage girl\u2014and told her a story.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/198.23.108.118\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/8th-gr-pic-2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-12452\" alt=\"8th gr pic (2)\" src=\"http:\/\/198.23.108.118\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/8th-gr-pic-2.jpg?w=209\" width=\"209\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a>\u201cSee this picture of me?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGeez! Your hair\u2019s the size of an inflatable bounce house!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat was the style, okay?\u201d I defended. \u201cAnyway, I had always been a tomboy. Trying to keep up with Uncle Ron, trying to prove I was just as tough as the boys. That I could do anything as good as a boy, if not better. I didn\u2019t care how I looked\u2014because I didn\u2019t think I was pretty. And when I got to junior high and saw all the girls in their cute outfits and cute hair and pretty make-up, I tried to pretend even more that I didn\u2019t care because I didn\u2019t think I fit in.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThen one day I decided if I was going to be happy with myself instead of being secretly jealous of all the girls at school with cute hair, I had to try something new. I was going to be myself\u2014and that person could still be strong and fast and smart and funny and even pretty without it being some chip on my shoulder that I had to prove it. It was realizing I suddenly cared about how I looked\u2014and that was okay. Because I was a teenage girl and I wanted cute hair.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis picture\u2026this is the first picture of me where I wasn\u2019t dressed like a tomboy\u2026and I thought I looked beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There was a moment of silence over this statement that is so hard for girls to admit out loud.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe point is I want you to feel beautiful every time you walk out of the house,\u201d I quietly said. \u201cI just want you to do what you need to do to feel that way. Sleep in or have cute hair. Wear your favorite comfy jeans and Converse or curl your hair and put on a little mascara\u2014or do both. Whatever it is that makes you feel best in your skin\u2014be that person. Just give yourself time to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Whitney nodded in understanding before giving me hug. \u201cThanks, Mom.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOh man,\u201d I said in mock alarm. \u201cIf you\u2019re going to get up early for cute hair we better tell Daddy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo we can tell him to turn in his badge. There\u2019s gonna be a new sheriff in the town of Good Lookin\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>#MayAllGirlsFeelAsSmartAndBeautifulAsTheyDoAtFiveYearsOld<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Building teenage girls&#8217; self-esteem one cute hairstyle at a time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":12452,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[675,1264,2,86,3,1265,1266,5,1267,6,1268,1269,1270],"class_list":["post-12451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-parenting-2","tag-building-girls-self-esteem","tag-building-self-esteem-in-girls","tag-family","tag-kelli-wheeler","tag-kids","tag-michelle-obama","tag-michelle-obamas-bangs","tag-momservations","tag-mothers-advice","tag-parenting","tag-positive-self-image","tag-teenage-girls","tag-why-cute-hair-is-important-to-girls"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Early Bird Gets Cute Hair - Kelli M. 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