Little Girl Calls Herself 'Ugly' In Heartbreaking Video - Hairdresser Handles It With Grace
With three words, one little girl brought the world to tears and inspired a tidal wave of love you would have to see to believe.
When she caught a glimpse of her reflection in the mirror, 4-year-old Ariyonna immediately stopped getting her haircut and uttered three heartbreaking words.
"I'm so ugly."
Stunned Atlanta-based hairdresser Shabria Redmond immediately stopped to console her.
“Don’t say that! Don’t say that. Don’t say that. You are so pretty,” said Redmond. But by then, the girl had already broken into tears.
However, Redmond didn't let up.
"You got these dimples. How many people got two dimples? You got two dimples! Look at them pretty white teeth!”
With Ariyonna still sniffling, Redmond went into hype mode.
No, you not gonna cry. You are a beautiful little girl. You are the prettiest girl in class. Boom! Tell 'em straight up.
Shabria Redmond
And while things might seem rough, Redmond tells her the future is bright.
"I will tell you, you are gorgeous. And you gonna grow up and you gonna be everything that you can be. The greatest…whatever you wanna be. What you wanna be?”
“The teacher,” Ariyonna says quietly.
“Your teacher mean to you?”
The little girl nodded.
“So guess what, when you become the teacher, you don’t be mean. You be the nice teacher,” Redmond added.
Posting online
Redmond posted the entire moment online, to share and seek support for little Ariyonna.
While doing her hair she had alllll the energy in the world then out of nowhere she stares at herself and gets soooo discouraged 😢 it broke my heart into pieces because she has the GREATEST energy and the most beautiful smile and heart.
Shabria Redmond
"I just think when kids go to school they learn and pick up so much different things that they don’t know the definition but they know the feeling," she continued.
The video quickly went viral, gathering over 750,000 likes and thousands of comments including some friends in high places.
Star power
Actress Jada Pinkett-Smith was moved and posted on Instagram
THIS made me cry! Kudos to this beautiful woman for loving on this beautiful child! We gotta love on each other! This made my heart sing.
Jada Pinkett-Smith
Oscar-nominated “Hair Love” director Matthew Cherry called on #ArtTwitter to reflect Ariyonna's true beauty, and they came out in droves.
Even former First Lady Michelle Obama chimed in with some love
“Ariyonna, you are gorgeous,” Obama wrote on Instagram. “In a world that sometimes tries to say otherwise, I want to tell you- and every other beautiful, intelligent, brave black girl- just how precious you are.”
Our children are beautiful
Well, the love shower brought rainbows. In a follow-up, the video shows a beaming Ariyonna blowing kisses to everyone who shared the love.
To Redmond, she's not only beautiful but a force.
She's a blessing, she's opened doors for a lot of the young girls like her today and are afraid to speak.
Shabria Redmond
Culture, classroom, history- who knows where Ariyonna got the idea that she's anything but beautiful. One thing's for sure: In those moments, we have to be there to lift children up.
After all, we're shaping our future.
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