Princeless: Make Yourself #0 Review

Writer: Jeremy Whitley / Artist: Alex Smith / Action Lab Comics An issue of Princeless to drop at the end of December, near the end of the year? Count me in! Yes! And the cover image is EVERYTHING. It’s Black Girl Magic times one hundred. As a Black woman, I feel a certain kinda way when I hear folks talking about Black hair. Now I grew up in a loving household where I had Black doll after black doll and had a Black/brown-skinned Jesus, Santa Claus and angels present in the art and decor to boot. But still I kept hearing despairingly comments about the hair I had and women who had hair with textures like mine. Even today as an adult I still feel like I have to shield myself, or my heart at least at times, when navigating a world that constantly attempts to hold me up to European beauty standards. I still have to live in a world where folks will be pressed to tell women who look like me, with hair and features like mine that we are less classically beautiful. (Protect Viola Davis at all costs). My point in the matter is… when I hear folks talking about Black hair I cringe a little because I know, by default, there’s a good chance my hair, like the hair that belongs to my mother, her mother, and all the women before them, is at the center of a tasteless joke. When I heard that this issue of Princeless was about hair, Black hair to be exact, I was intrigued. I’ve been following Adrienne’s adventures for a while and she’s come up against all type of dangers. She’s been up again…