Due to the amount of media that portrays women as having the perfect body type, skin, and hair, girls have been led to believe they need to have a specific model-like appearance. This image of ‘beauty’ that is promoted every time both women and men turn on their television, watch an advertisement before a YouTube video, open a magazine, and view media through other various mediums, they are bound to see a portrayal of a woman that is unrealistic. Women and girls do not roll out of bed looking like models nor do they have perfectly straight and non-frizzy hair without a substantial amount of time and money on products spent giving specific attention to their hair. Because of the expectation that the media has set for the appearance of women, girls often become frustrated with their appearance and it begins to make them feel inferior to others and uncomfortable in their own skin. Chances are, you’ve heard this argument before but you’ve been left unaware of how a change can be made. Dove has decided to put forth an attempt to show society what they can do by targeting an audience most people would not normally think to address: curly girls.

Dove has created their own campaign #LoveYourCurls to show how many young girls with curly hair do not see their hair as beautiful nor are they proud of their head of curly locks. Through studies, Dove has seen how having grown women flaunt their curls around these young girls has helped them to see their hair as attractive. Dove decided these young girls needed to know how beautiful they really are with their curly hair so they interviewed young curly girls and created an advertisement.  Personally, having curly hair, I remember how annoyed I was with my hair when I was of grade school age. I was the only girl in my class to have noticeably curly hair and I was self-conscience of it. I always had adults come up to me wanting to touch my hair commenting how beautiful it was, but I remember thinking they didn’t know what they were talking about-hadn’t they seen all the models with straight hair? It wasn’t until high school when I finally listened to those adults’ compliments. It was then that I gave up battling my wild locks, just learned to deal with what I was born with, and in effect, finally felt beautiful with my own hair. Having experienced this body image struggle as a child, I commend Dove for making the effort to reach out to these overlooked curly girls. As efforts such as this one by Dove to counter our culture’s “perfect” man or women continue to appear in today’s media, it is important to remember what an impact such a positive message can have on someone who is internally struggling and be sure to pass on the good word. In this case, you may just need to ‘let your hair down.’