So Cute! Sesame Street‘s ‘I Love My Hair’ Skit

Zach Hyman/Sesame Street/AP

Before Joey Mazzarino adopted his 5-year old daughter, Segi, from Ethiopia, he had no idea hair could be such an issue.

It wasn’t until she told him she wanted long, straight, blond “princess” hair after playing with her dolls that the Sesame Street head writer and puppeteer knew he needed to do something.

His efforts turned into a super cute skit, “I Love My Hair,” featuring an African-American puppet sporting an afro who shows appreciation for her unique tresses in song.

After debuting on the Oct. 4, the video instantly became an Internet sensation.

Moms and bloggers posted it over and over to share the positive message.

And with lyrics that include, “Your hair is great. You can put it in ponytails. You can put it in cornrows. I wish I had hair like you,” it’s no wonder it’s become a big hit.

Mazzarino even received a call from an African woman who told him the song brought her to tears. “I was amazed, ’cause I sort of wrote this little thing for my daughter, and here this adult woman, it touched her,” he told NPR.

Want to see what all the fuss is about? Check out the video below.

 

Comments

This video is long overdue and much needed for little girls of color. I have a beautiful 4.5 year old daughter with thick, natural tresses, who often laments about wanting long, blond, ‘princess’ hair. Healthy and beautiful images of young African American actors and cartoon characters are in short supply here in the US, and I am constantly fighting an uphill battle every day as I try to reassure my daughter that she is beautiful just the way she is.

Thanks to Joey Mazzarino, and even Willow Smith (regardless of my personal feelings about her age) my job has been made just a tad bit easier.

- Sharon on October 22nd, 2010

Totally agree Sharon. I wish this message would have been around when I was a child. Little black girls are taught from the beginning that long blond hair is the idea of beauty. I hate the amount of time I spent as a child believing this stereotype instead of loving what I had.

- J-Lin on October 22nd, 2010

I can really appreciate this video! Kudos to Sesame Street for making this video! I remember growing up n I had really bright brown hair n it was really curley! I use to hate my hair n would always dream of having hair like “white” people! But now that I am older, I have come to appreciate my hair…so much so that I have been locking for the past 6yrs! I get so many compliments on my hair, I now have a son and his hair issues may not be the same as colored girls, but it something that I will teach him about!

We need more positive images for kids of color! Thanks CBB for posting this…Kudos to u as well! <3

- dlock on October 22nd, 2010

This is very sweet! As a brunette I always hated the lack of representation of my hair color in children’s toys and characters, so I can imagine how left out these kids where feeling.

When I was older my best friend started getting cornrows, and I admit I was jealous how great they looked on her!

- Karen on October 22nd, 2010

I am so glad that Sesame Street has created this character and this song! It is about time!

I am a white woman raising a blonde daughter and it wasn’t until having her that I fully understood just how biased the toys and dolls are. I had never really paid attention before but after having her I realized that it was ridiculous that all dolls, or most, are white and blonde.

You would have thought that I would have no problem with this, since they all looked like my kid but it was the total opposite. I began wondering where my friends with bi-racial children found toys that looked like them? Where would an Asian family find toys that looked like their daughter? It was appalling. And it wasn’t until recently watching Chris Rock’s documentary that I understood, or more so, how difficult it is for women of color to have the hair styles that they desire.

So I am very glad to see SS tackle this issue in a way that small children can relate to in the same manner that they have tackled other topics- with grace, some fun, and a great message suitable for any child.

- Kristen on October 22nd, 2010

If they had a blonde, white girl “I Love my Hair video everyone would scream racism, what’s the difference ??

- Holly on October 22nd, 2010

When I was little I was jealous of my friend’s hair because of all the colourful ribbons and beads that she would wear in it! I asked my parents when I would get African hair because I thought the hair that I would eventually be an adult with would be African hair so that I could use all those colourful accessories.

- Vin on October 22nd, 2010

**SIIIIGHHHH** Oh, Holly (shaking my head). Shame on you for trying to turn a positive into a negative. How about you make one of those videos & see what reaction you get?! He made a video based on HIS situation with HIS African American daughter. No one said anyone else couldn’t do the same.

- 2little on October 22nd, 2010

Holly, with respect, I don’t think anyone would scream racism. In fact, no one would really pay much attention because it would just be more of the same. We see images of little white girls ‘loving’ their hair every day. We see them in doll commercials, we see them in Happy Meal toys, we see them in cartoons, we see them in Hannah Montana-esque shows, we see them in Disney characters, we see them in books. It takes a real and honest understanding of the absence of positive black images aimed at black children to fully appreciate this whole issue, and I applaud Kristen for coming to that realization on her own.

When people throw out comments such as yours Holly, or the ever popular, “if there was a White Entertainment Television (as opposed to BET,) people would call it racism,” it misses the entire point of such an important and essential issue. Please take a moment to fully educate yourself on White Privilege (that’s actually a real term used in research and taught in universities,) in order to better understand why me and the other posters are so passionate about this topic. Also, try and imagine yourself as a little girl growing up in a country where there is a black majority, and think about how helpless and even hopeless you would feel as you struggled to find someone on TV shows and in advertising who looked like you, and told you on a daily basis that you were ‘enough,’ and that you were beautiful.

- Sharon on October 22nd, 2010

This is the best video EVER!!!! That lil’ girl is so…proud of her hair that wants the world to know it. If we as parents teach our children at an early age to love and appreciate everything about themselves then they won’t have to depend on our “material” and “artifical” society to validate them for acceptance.

- kelcee on October 22nd, 2010

This is a great video to give girls confidence about their image. As an ECE I see everyday how children want what other children have. This includes clothing styles, eye colour, hair colour, and yes, hair texture.

I also recommend the book ‘nappy hair’ for little girls (and even boys) of african heritage.

Kudos to Joey Mazzarino for recognizing this is an issue not only his own child faces, but children everywhere.

- Rebecca on October 22nd, 2010

Holly,
It wouldn’t be racist if there was a similar video depicting blonde, white children. This video opens the door for inclusion of others. It would simply be nice if there were more videos to represent the diversity of our country/ world.

I do take offense, however, to the use of the word ‘unique’ tresses in reference to the song. We have been so conditioned to think that anything outside of what is considered mainstream is automatically labeled.

- Dixon's Mom on October 22nd, 2010

The whole blonde hair thing is so dominant. I’m Asian and my 7 year old has consistently said she wants “yellow” hair since she was 4. It’s so sad since she already has gorgeous shiny black hair!

- Azure on October 22nd, 2010

The difference @Holly is that a blonde, white girl’s hair has never been depicted in a negative way in society. Other nationalities (not just African American) with thick, curly hair have been taunted by remarks of their hair being nappy, unattractive, etc…

- Sherry on October 22nd, 2010

I want long, blond princess hair too! I did during my whole childhood, I told my mom that when I grew up I’d have it straightened and dyed. Well I didn’t. But sometimes I still wish I looked like Sleeping Beauty

- Alice on October 22nd, 2010

This is so amazing! I recently graduated from university and I spent a lot of my time studying gender and racial issues. Learning about the struggles different cultures have with their image, especially in reference to their hair has not gotten the attention it deserves. As a white woman, I was ignorant to the fact because I had people and characters to identify with in the media my whole life.

It really makes me sad to read comments like Holly’s because this song is the furthest thing from racism, it’s about inclusion. How can you not see that other cultures are not represented properly in the media? Any little girl who constantly has to view images of beauty as the image of white girl with long, straight, blonde hair is going to wonder why she doesn’t look the same. She is going to wonder if she is pretty. How would you feel if your daughter or even yourself felt like that?

These kinds of media representations are nothing but positive and I cannot wait to see more of them in the future. Every girl deserves to feel beautiful, and as women we should all support one another!

- Alicia on October 22nd, 2010

I have a just turned 6 year old, very blond haired girl. I guess you can say she is the opposite of what some little African American girls want to look like. She WANTS the ‘brown skin’ (not even a good sun tanning will work, she is part Norwegian, Irish) and the very curly dark hair. When she plays princess wii she is always a brown skinned princess. She thinks they are beautiful. I have to braid her hair into a million braids. She wears this for about two days and then we take it out and she has very kinky hair, which she absolutely loves. Yes at six she is very sensitive to the environment around her. Whether its nature, she is a vegetarian and says when she grows up she is going to save all the animals. And will most likely be joining some kind of group like Green Peace. (Which her older sibling, he’s 16 is terrified of) and all at the same time will be an activist for all minority people.

I should also include when we are out and if there are any infants little children or even adults who are a minority (Chinese, Japanese, latin, African, middle eastern) she tells them how she likes their hair, or clothes, most recently we were at the grocery store and there were some middle eastern women shopping and they were wearing their clothes, she had to tell them that she thought what they were wearing was beautiful. I sit back in awe of her. She knows what she wants, she is intuitive to her surroundings, and I don’t believe I was like that. I know for a fact my husband was not. (He was a detective and hates people, not really just won’t go out of his way to speak to strangers, he’s guarded.)

I don’t ever want her innocence to disappear. She is eager to learn about other cultures and I love that because I or we learn too. Once a month we take out our talking globe. Blind fold one of our 4 kids, ages 6-18, spin the globe and stop it with the end of a pencil. Where it stops is what country and culture we learn. I have been doing this for 14 years. (3 globes ago) perhaps that’s where she originally got it from? My husband and I joke privately that we should have named her Uniqua. Because she is definitely unique! And I hope that part of her never changes.

I loved this video. I showed it to my daughter and she loved it as well. I agree with others that this was long overdue. It is very hard to find any books on “African” girls. We have a few. My girlfriend adopted an African American baby. She just bought books about African hair. Nappy Happy and I love my hair! She is going to lend it to us. They sound cute!

- mary on October 22nd, 2010

LOVE this video. I’m a nanny and worked for about 6 months with a family that adopted a 1 year old from Ethiopia. It was amazing how much research her mom and I put into just trying to figure out how to take care of her hair! African-American hair IS different than the typical long, strait, blonde hair and needs to be taken care of differently, too. It was fun though trying out different hair styles on B’s hair that would look awful on a Caucasian persons hair.

We need many more videos like this one! Glad this topic is starting to get more attention!!

- Sarah M. on October 22nd, 2010

I love the video… and hey… if they wanna do another version with girl puppets of various races or not… kudos… I think the reason they chose african is because of the specific texture of hair and how different it is from other races’ hair… and girls with something that makes them feel separate need this kind of reassurance that they should be proud of it… not try to look like everyone else.

it would be the same if they had a kid singing about glasses, or braces, stuff like that.

Instead of worrying about “what if” and all that stuff… appreciate the good it does.

- Kat_momof3 on October 22nd, 2010

I love this video! As a bi-racial woman (black dad/ white mom) I always loved and appreciated my thick curly hair. My parents never allowed us to watch television (except for PBS) growing up, and that made all the difference!

- TM on October 22nd, 2010

I love this video! I’m 30 years old and I’ve watched it on Youtube a good twenty times in the last three or four days. She just warms my heart and puts a smile on my face! Not only is it an incredibly important message for black girls, but it’s a message that can strike a chord with anyone. And how much do you love that a father would go to so much effort to make their child feel good about themselves?!?! I wouldn’t mind it if this adorable muppet became a regular fixture on ‘The Street’!

- meghan on October 22nd, 2010

In a way, I understand Holly’s point, although I am not sure she worded it well. It’s very easy for somebody that is not white to scream rasism when, let’s face it, it goes both ways. No matter, I’m glad this video is out. I’m not a fan of Seseme Street but I remember when I decided to buy a black Cabbage Patch Doll and was a little disappointed that there were not more to choose from.

On a totally different note, a story we love to tell about my 33 year old sister occured while she was in kindergarden. She came home and told my Mom that she didn’t like Sally (real name?) because she was black. My Mom got alarmed and asked her why that mattered. My sister matter of factly informed her that purple was a much prettier color than brown and she thought that Sally should be purple.

It just goes to show that adults should be color blind the way children are.

- Tee on October 22nd, 2010

That video is cute and could be geared to many ethnicities. Asian, hispanic, black, white ,etc. Not everyone has the perfect hair. And lets face it we always want something we don’t have.

Funny thing is I am naturally blonde and now am more happy as a brunette! Being blonde can be very stereotypical for people who automatically assume that your a bimbo, not as smart or feel impelled to constantly tell you their blonde jokes! It gets old.

- JMO on October 22nd, 2010

Holly… miss the point much?

cute video. i hope it makes lots of little girls happy.

- JM on October 22nd, 2010

Holly *shakes head*…so ignorant.

Mary, your comment is just heartwarming. Give you daughter a BIG hug…and give yourself a HUGE pat on the back. You have raised her well. It takes us, as parents, to teach our children to accept everyone for who they are/what they wear/what they look like (skin, hair, eye shape, etc).

I have a 3 year old son. We took him to a local kids only water part this summer, and he noticed a beautiful african american girl and just looked at her smiling. Then he said to me “Mommy…that girl is dark.” So I told him, “Yes, she is brown. And she is beautiful, isn’t she?” To which he smiled more and said “yes. She is beautiful.”

I happened to catch the video the day it premiered and fell in love. It’s a sweet, upbeat, positive message…to everyone really. If you can look past the puppet being african american, that song can apply to ANY ONE of ANY COLOR! I see it as a song about loving ourselves and everything about ourselves.

Way to go SS for a job well done!!

- Seanaci on October 22nd, 2010

I love this. We need more positive images for our girls.

- Terri on October 22nd, 2010

The funny thing is, I have always had “long, straight, blond” hair, and it was rather the bane of my existence, especially as a teenager. That style was not popular in the eighties when I was a young adult, and I have tolerated “hair” comments my entire life. My hair is very fine and straight, and I could never get it to wave or feather. I keep it nicely combed and sometimes add a barette, but I am basically hair challenged. But my point is that the grass is not greener on the other side! And I do wish this obsession with blond, straightened hair would end. I’m really tired of the uniformity and am glad for this video.

- AE on October 22nd, 2010

I love it, so sweet!

There is a little African girl in my son’s class and all the little girls are jealous of her hair, they all want beads in their hair.

- Emmy on October 22nd, 2010

I guess I have not thought about it that way, where I’m from there aren’t ANY minorities, so we are in a different world here. It sounds like a great idea if it makes children feel better about themselves. I’m sorry for sounding harsh.

- Holly on October 23rd, 2010

I think it’s awesome a father cared so much for his child that he went out of his way to show her all the positive qualities her hair has….Holly when I went to college I had two white roommates that had never actually seen a black person other than on television and of course thru other media outlets but never live and in color….they were so curious about how I did my hair, what it felt like and why I didn’t wash it every other day like they did . Makes me smile just thinking about all our long discussions about the difference b/w white and black people vs all the stereotypes that are seen/heard on television, radio and print.

Kudos to you and your precious little girl Joey Mazzarino.

- NNHARRIS on October 23rd, 2010

Seanaci

Thanks, but ultimately its my mom who deserves the kudos. When I was growing up my father who was a cardiologist and my mom worked in neurology, would celebrate birthdays with their doctor friends and we would also celebrate Thanksgiving/Christmas with them. Looking back it was a normal gathering, but now I’m not so sure it would happen. The friends consisted of a Jewish Dr and his family; a Muslim Dr (Yes a Jewish man and a Muslim in the same house, I didn’t know this was a no-no until my late teens) his family was in his home country, a Catholic Nun, a Jewish Lawyer and his family and some residents whom my mother felt they needed American culture at Thanksgiving time. (we had our tree up by this time) these strays were usually residents who were kicked out of their own family because they were ‘gay’, I never knew what that meant until I was much older. or anyone who was to be all alone on that holiday time.

When I married in my middle 20’s I had such a dilemma eat with my family then go to my husband’s families. This was way too much food for me and thus I having thanksgiving dinner at my house was born. My mother who was a torn at the idea, what would happen to her residents. Both my husband and I have large families, and I mean 37 all together what is one, two or three more? And since I was already brought up with ‘strays’ it was natural for me to have them be welcomed into my house as well. My children and my In Laws, have met people from India, Pakistan, Israel, Saudi, Africa, Egypt, and I am sure I am missing a few. If they were from the US she would find out what nationality they were or what their favorite foods were and we would make it for them.

My mom is the one who started with the spinning of the globe and picking out blindly a country and learning about that country. Many times we were at the library the night before Thanksgiving finding out all we could about the country of where her residents were from. Back then we had to go to a library (which was fun). Now it’s just a click away.
My father passed away in the early 80’s. And his Dr Friends past away either shortly before of soon after. We had kept in touch with most of the families but it has gotten harder and harder as the years go on.

My mother passed away it will be 3 years in January. I miss her dearly. I think she lives on thru my baby girl. How she is so sensitive towards people, and her eagerness to learn about others. I do miss bringing in her “stray residents” we all learned from them. My husbands family also tells me how they would have never learned some of the things they were taught from the ‘strays’

I just hope with that my kids won’t get influenced by negative friends, or the media, or ignorant people and stay ‘open’ to the idea that we are all brown. Just some of us are lighter and some of us are darker, but none the less we are all a shade of brown. My mother used to tell all five of us kids, and I tell my four the same thing.

- mary on October 24th, 2010

I can relate NNHARRIS, I was asked by some of my earlier roommates if I use actual grease or cooking olive oil for my hair lol. It was interesting but I wasn’t offended. They were curious and asked in a respectful way.

- Molly on October 24th, 2010

@Holly, you’re stupid as heck, SMH at you! We see white girls loving their blonde hair everyday since forever and us people of color don’t see it as racist, nor I see this “I love My Hair” video is racist. This video is long overdue, I wish they had this video when I was a child growing up in the early 80s to the 1990s. Now I’m a mom of a 2 year old girl and I let her see the video on YouTube and she kept singing “I love my hair”. I want her to grow up knowing that it’s okay to hair nappy hair and that what makes her and young black girls unique. I cut my relaxed hair off 3 years ago so I can wear it natural.

- Natasha on October 24th, 2010

I remember seeing a skit Whoopi Goldberg did back when she was first starting out. She had the waistbach of pair of pantyhose on her head, and the legs were hanging all the way down her back. She was being a little girl imagining she had long, straight light hair. It was charming as Life gets. I loved it. And this video brought back that delightful memory.

- Annie on October 24th, 2010

I love this video thank you Sesame Street.

I have a beautiful 2 year old daughter with GOOD HAIR and she wears it in an Afro and I make an effort to try and find her curly hair dolls. No Disney princess dolls not even the new one, with her straight black hair. That’s just wrong!

I want her to love herself exactly the way she is. I’m sick and tired of the slave mentality that you have to have straight hair to walk outside your house. My daughter will not be allowed to relaxed (destroy) her hair as long as she lives under our roof.

- Clara on October 25th, 2010

dlock, I can appreciate your post but I found the term “colored girl” rather offensive as an African American woman. I am extremely late, but as I read through all I saw were comments to Holly… I was surprised to see that no one commented on it, maybe thats because some arent aware of the negative connotation it carries.

- Ri J on October 25th, 2010

When my best friend’s niece was 3, she licked my arm to see if I tasted like chocolate. She’s 8 now and I still make fun of her for it.

But I went to a college (graduated in ’05) in a small town and I worked in a children’s library and I heard my fair share of “mama, what’s wrong with that girls skin?” At first I was suprised, but never offended, and the parents were embarassed enough. They were little kids, they asked questions, and learned something new.

- dee on October 25th, 2010

People it’s only hair, it’s not that serious. Teach your daughters to love who and what they are. I can’t believe folks needs a video to teach their children self acceptance. OMG!

- Mom Of Twins on October 26th, 2010

Clara…”Good Hair” are you serious!? Maybe you need to watch the video again. Walking around saying good hair is taking us back to slavery! get into the new millenium and stop using ignorant phrases like “Good Hair” Good hair is healthy strong hair, good hair is beautiful hair, straight does not always equal good. OMG you need to get it together

- Ty on October 26th, 2010

I can not beleive a grown mother of twins just said “OMG”.

- djm on October 27th, 2010

@Ty my daughter has “GOOD HAIR” and it’s not straight, but curly (she wears it in an Afro, like the puppet in the video). It’s quite difficult to wear an Afro with straight hair. Why don’t you READ before you post?

- Clara on October 27th, 2010

@djm, Sweety get over it. Would you have preferred I said “Oh My God”. Either way it means the same.

- Mom Of Twins on October 27th, 2010

Again…what is your definition of “good hair” I don’t care if her hair is curly or not. My hair is not curly or straight…it’s “kinky” and it’s beautiful black and thick. I’ll say it again stop using the term good hair…it’s very ignorant and very old school. its 2010! using the phrase good hair means that there is bad hair out there. and that notion is just silly. wake up!!!!!

- Ty on October 28th, 2010

Ty – Good hair is happy healthy manageable hair, that can be styled in anyway the user (or parents in this matter desire), to say that there is no ‘bad hair’ is even worse. Clearly you have never seen anyone with a bad dye job, or cut, or just the fact that they don’t maintain their hairs condition so that it is greasy or have split ends.

I am a 21 year old woman from the UK with boring, brunette, fine limp hair, that will not stay styled, be it straight, curly or even crimped for longer than an hour. I have regular trims to keep it as healthy as possible and a fortnightly deep nourishing treatment, yet I still cannot do anything with it. I would never dye my hair blonde, as bleach can seriously damage hair, or perm it for that matter, but I would love to have African American hair, or any hair other than my own. This video was uplifting to me, as it teaches kids to love what they have been given and with the media constantly telling us that celebs are overweight/underweight, etc etc it is refreshing for something like this to happen. I am sure Clara meant that her daughters hair is good, as in healthy african american hair not that straight or blonde hair is bad. Think someone needs to relax a little….

- Linzi on October 28th, 2010

@Ty The use of the words KINKY, NAPPY and WILD to describe hair of African decent is ignorant and offensive. The correct word is curly (GOOD HAIR) so you are the one that needs to WAKE UP and take a Valium.

- Clara on October 28th, 2010

I LOVE this vid! It’s LONG OVERDUE!! I hope it helps to change the mindset of limited beauty and value.

- Senora on October 28th, 2010

Further more there is such a thing as BAD hair. Like chemically treated relaxed hair is BAD hair, you could end up with bald spots.

- Clara on October 29th, 2010

Mom of Twins – It must be nice for your kids to see images like their selves all over the place. Your world sounds so easy that you can’t even comprehend the issues other experience. What a wonderful life!

- J-Lin on October 29th, 2010

This video was great. I have to share also, I’m Scandinavian and looked very stereotypical as a child (I had long, blonde hair). I would have given anything to have black hair! I wanted to look like a Native American girl, with long black braids. I also wanted to wear cornrows and such when I was a little older. When my mother allowed me to dye my hair dark in my teens I was so happy, while almost everyone I knew got horrified. “Why did you ruin your beautiful hair?!” I just couldn’t understand it, the over the top appreciation for blonde hair.

I really hope this video makes children of darker colours feel more proud of what they have. We all are beautiful, the way we are.

- Aly on October 29th, 2010

I think the video is wonderful and helps children…. And when it’s all said and done that is what matters the most. By the way I am not the Holly that made the ignorant comments earlier lol

- Holly Snyder on October 29th, 2010