When I was growing up I didn't see too many people that looked like me "winning". Even the dolls that I had didn't look like me. They had straight hair, and mine was curly. Their skin was light and mine was brown. Sure I played with Bratz dolls, who had big lips, and wide noses, and that was I great introduction to black dolls, but that was all I had. Bratz dolls even had long silky hair that resembled that of a white person, making me dislike my own hair even more. Representation matters. It is important that all the little beautiful black children see that there are real people out there, that look just like them, doing big things.
I couldn't be more proud when I watched the Miss USA competition on Sunday and saw three black girls make it to the top 10. While watching the competition I thought for sure they would pick Miss California, or Miss Alabama to win the title of Miss USA because they were white.Yes, there has been black Miss USA winners before, but with all of the madness that has been going on in the black community, I highly doubted that there would be one this year. When they announced Deshauna Barber, a black woman as Miss USA I couldn't have been more proud, to be a young black woman. Black twitter also rallied together to say how proud they were that our Miss USA was black, because they also know that representation matters. Growing up I would've never thought that Disney would give us a black princess, a black girl would win a gold gymnastics medal, or that my President and First Lady would be black. I would've never thought that I would go to a College and be surrounded by beautiful intelligent black people.
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Representation matter now more than ever. It seems like todays generation doesn't have the most positive role models. When I scroll through my social media accounts such as Twitter and Instagram, I see girls who take pictures with little to no clothes on get more like than a recent graduation picture. It's crazy to me that Kim Kardashian has three times as many followers than the President of the United States. Growing up my role model was my mother, she's a single mother of two, who does an amazing job taking care of my brother and I. We never had to worry about anything. My mother was really my only role model, because I didn't really see anyone in the media who I aspired to be.
We live in a "Monkey see, Monkey Do" world. Therefore celebrities as well as us "normal" people should be mindful of the image that we portray to the younger generation. It's crucial that they see that black people are intelligent, beautiful and that we are powerful. The black community has had quite a few come ups this year, such as Beyoncé dropping the Formation video, and 11 year old Mikaila Ulmer selling her lemonade in Whole Foods stores across the country. Behave like the person you want the younger generation to be, they're always watching, because representation matters.
