As a little ginger girl growing up, my holiday wish list was to find a doll that looked just like me. It was tough to find in the pre-American Girl retail world when my only options were brunette and blonde Barbie dolls. Luckily, Santa pulled through and I received Strawberry Shortcake and a Cabbage Patch Kid with red yarn pigtails. It was as if my magical Christmas dreams came true.
As I grew and made a splash into cosmetics, it brought on another set of challenges far beyond finding a baby doll. Now, I wanted to get all dolled up but couldn’t seem to find the options.
As a teenager I hoped for mascara that didn’t make me look like I was in costume for a Halloween party. Brown/reddish mascara was hard to come by, and I was lucky to find a ‘redhead friendly’ foundation/powder light enough to blend into my fair complexion.
Then, when Christmas-sweater time rolled around, everyone assumed I, the redhead, couldn’t wear red. I remember feeling left out, but wanted to rebel and prove that gingers could wear colors like ruby pink, white and pastels.
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The world kindly and verbally singled me out day-to-day due to my vibrant hue that set me apart; but when it came to finding items tailored to my skin tone, eye color, hair color combination–the attention from the world (retailers) just wasn’t there.
Professionals told me I wouldn’t be able to find the proper cosmetics and to stick with “safe” color options for clothes.
But this gave me the confidence to take that energy and overflow it into every facet of my life.
They told me I wouldn’t. I said I will.
Fast forward to present day, and little girls have red-haired princess doll options and social norms about what redheads should/should not do has banished. Finally!
Now with access to How to be a Redhead products and the How to be a Redhead book, it’s definitely given me the confidence to embrace who I am and move forward in life with that spark in my eye, ready to catch the world afire with my fiery locks and redhead soul (yes, we have one… maybe we stole yours).
So as the holidays come and go, we have to be thankful that the holidays allow gift-giving to be more ‘redhead friendly’. I hope you have a younger redheaded girl in your life that you can pass down all of your useful information to; because only other redheads understand the spunk and confidence we’ve learned to develop through our trials and tribulations.
Rock it like a Redhead!
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