A seven-year-old girl from Jacksonville recently published her own comic book that inspires girls to love themselves and embrace their natural hair — and it’s already begun to receive awards and accolades.
According to NewsOne.com, Natalie McGriff and her mother, Angie Nixon, first came up with the idea for “The Adventures of Moxie Girl” after McGriff experienced grief and insecurity over the texture of her hair.
“About a year ago, Natalie was having issues with her hair and her skin color and I was trying to figure out what to do,” Nixon explained to BuzzFeed News.
Eventually, Nixon suggested that her daughter write a comic book and make her hair a super power; thus, “Moxie Girl” was born.
The comic’s protagonist gets her magical superpowers from a special shampoo that turns her hair into crime-fighting afro puffs made of fire and ice, according to BuzzFeed. Her hair gives her the power to save the Jacksonville library from book-eating monsters.
“The Adventures of Moxie Girl” recently won first place out of more than 500 entries in Jacksonville’s 2015 One Spark Festival fundraising event; McGriff received a $16,424 prize to go toward the comic’s publication. The comic will be released in June, and McGriff and her mother plan to use the prize money to create other “Moxies” of different races and genders.
The relationship between popular beauty standards and African-American hair is nuanced and complex. For the better part of a century, African-American women — and girls — have turned to chemical relaxers to make their hair conform to Euro-centric beauty and hair ideals. As a result, hair relaxing treatments now make up 21% of the market for black haircare, with $152 million being spent on these products annually.
Using chemical relaxers isn’t harmless, however. In an attempt to straighten their hair, black women often face side effects ranging from hair breakage and loss to chemical burns.
So far, the comic has generated a positive response among kids in McGriff’s age group due to its positive messages.
“At the festival, little kids of color would run up and be like, ‘That’s so cool, she looks like me!'” Nixon told BuzzFeed News. “They were so not used to seeing people like them in books, they were so excited.”
Ultimately, “Moxie Girl” didn’t just help McGriff accept her hair and embrace her unique qualities — it helped her develop a love for reading, as well.
“I decided to help Natalie write this book because she was having self-esteem issues regarding her hair and she hated to read,” Nixon said. “She now realizes how powerful and awesome her hair is and that in order for her to write a cool book, she needs to read more books and learn different words.”
