A video of a little black girl calling herself ugly making rounds on the Internet.
The video shows, four-year-old Ariyonna caught sight of herself on the camera screen and said, ‘I’m so ugly.’
She then bursts into tears when she’s told she is beautiful. The stylist Shabria was recording for Instagram Live while doing Ariyonna’s hair. “I’m so ugly,” Ariyonna says seeing herself on the phone camera.
“Don’t say that. Don’t say that. You are so pretty,” her stylist, Shabria, said. “Will you look at yourself? You’ve got the prettiest little dimples. You are too cute.”
“You have this beautiful chocolate skin,” she says, pulling the crying girl out of her chair and gives her a warm hug. Then she says to the girl, ‘You’re gonna make me cry! You’re not ugly!’
Over several more minutes, she continues to boost her confidence. ‘You’re gonna grow up and you’re gonna be everything that you can be,’ she tells her.
“We Must UPLIFT Our Queens,” Shabria wrote, under her handle Lilwavedaddy.
“While doing her hair she had all the energy in the world, then out of nowhere she stares at herself and gets soooo discouraged,” Shabria wrote.
“It broke my heart into pieces because she has the GREATEST energy and the most beautiful smile and heart! She comes from a great home & loving mother . I just think when kids go to school they learn and pick up sooo much different things that they don’t know the definition but they know the feeling! Keep her in your prayers and keep lifting up our future!!!”
Social media users showed their full support to the little girl as one wrote, ‘This is why it’s so important to tell young black girls that they’re beautiful. they need to hear it.’
‘WHO IS TELLING THIS LIL ANGEL BABY THAT SHE’S UGLY?!’ another asked, while a third wrote: ‘What specifically gutted me was that this child wordlessly burst into tears after she was *told* she was beautiful.’
Another wrote: ‘Who is out here destroying this baby’s self-esteem?’
Another added: ‘You know what’s funny, is she may have NEVER had anyone tell her that she is ugly. She may have just witnessed the adoration of girls that don’t look like her. People think kids don’t pick up on that kind of stuff. But they are highly intuitive. Representation matters!”
Not only commoners but celebrities too joined the conversation and motivated the girl. “Ariyonna, you are gorgeous,” Obama posted on her own Instagram feed. “In a world that sometimes tries to say otherwise, I want to tell you – and ever other beautiful, intelligent, brave black girl – just how precious you are.”
Jada Pinkett Smith wrote: ‘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.’
Director Ava DuVernay tweeted: ‘In tears over this. Somebody told this child this and her heart broke and her confidence broke and she believed it.
‘Thank God for this beautiful spirit in her life to tell her differently. This video shows how deeply we harm each other. And fully we can lift each other up.’
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