+

adoption

Photo by Stacey Natal/Total City Girl used with permission.

Jillian, “... my heart skips a beat."

This article originally appeared on 04.08.16


I'm trying desperately to be respectful of the person speaking to me, but my husband keeps texting me.

First he sends me a selfie of him with Rafi*, then it's an account of who stopped him on his way into the NICU.

Keep ReadingShow less

Blossom in Glennville, Georgia.

When most people think about foster children they lament the fact that they have no parents. When, in most cases, the problem is much worse, they have nothing. No friends. No family. No belongings.

When the police remove a child from an abusive home, the child’s things aren’t the biggest priority. In other cases, a caseworker shows up at a child’s home for removal and they only have a few minutes to grab a few things—whatever fits in a plastic bag.

Linda Durrence, 51, from Glennville, Georgia wants the foster children in her community to have something for themselves.

In December 2016, she and her husband lost their 27-year-old daughter in a car accident. After their tragic loss, the Durrences and their two remaining daughters began attending a church in Glennville. The daughters soon became friends with three girls that were being fostered by another family at the church.

However, in 2018, the sisters were set to be moved to separate foster homes.

Keep ReadingShow less

2021 Mullet Champ kids finalists.

The mullet haircut has meant many different things. In the ’70s it meant you were a cool rocker such as David Bowie or Paul McCartney. In the ’80s it was the preferred haircut for hockey players and baseball dirtbags. The hairstyle also has a rich association with Southern culture and country music.

The mullet fell out of fashion in the mid-’90s when the flamboyant business in the front, party in the back hairstyle began to be seen as the epitome of trashiness. The haircut has been known by many names throughout history but would forever be known as the mullet after Beastie Boys released a punk rock B-side in 1994 called “Mullet Head.”

You're coming off like you're Van Damme

You've got Kenny G, in your Trans Am

You've got names like Billy Ray

Now you sing Hip Hop Hooray

Keep ReadingShow less
Image courtesy of Styles4Kidz
True

This article was originally published on 7/22/2020

If you aren't familiar with textured hair, it's hard to know how to style it properly. Similarly to how straight-haired people may not know that curly-haired people often don't use shampoo, people who don't have textured hair often have no clue what products to use to keep hair healthy or what hairstyles work best with different hair types.

That can be a problem when non-Black parents adopt Black kids. Hair is a significant cultural reality, and knowing how to manage one's hair is important. If parents are clueless about helping their kids with personal grooming, children will grow up missing out on that aspect of their personal identity.

Enter Styles4Kids, a non-profit organization founded by Tamekia Swint in 2010. Swint had helped a transracial adoptive mom learn how to style her three daughters' hair, and that mom began referred Swint to other adoptive parents. She founded Styles4Kids with just a handful of clients, and how helps thousands of parents and kids. The non-profit organization focuses on hair care education, training, and services for transracial adoptive parents as well as children in foster care, residential facilities and detention centers.

Great Big Story created a video about Swint and her organization that explains why helping kids with their natural hair is so important.

"Sometimes transracial adoptive families don't understand how important hair is," Swift says in the video. "It's much bigger than. hair. It's really about the care and the confidence that we're giving to the child through the hairstyle."

A white mom with six Black kids shared her own realization that her hair styling skills were not up to the challenge, and how Swint helped her gain the skills and confidence she needed to help her care for and style her kids' hair.

"I would want to tell other transracial adoptive parents that it is your job to make your kid look decent when you're out of the house, and if you can't do that naturally on your own—and most of us can't—then it's your job to seek out help from somebody who can teach you."

Styles4Kidz uses Facebook and Instagram to educate and encourage families to master hairstyles that boost kids’ self-esteem and cultural pride. Swint also leverages Facebook fundraisers to run a non-profit salon "where multiracial, foster and adoptive kids are empowered to embrace their natural, ethnic crown." Swint calls her services "Hair Care With Heart," fulfilling the organization's vision of building "a diverse community of people creating and celebrating hairstyles that boost kids' self-esteem and cultural pride."

Learn more about Styles4Kidz on the organization's website here.

We’re partnering with Meta to spotlight individuals and community organizers who are using their tools for good. We believe that positive actions can create a ripple effect of kindness, online and IRL.