Last night Déla asked during dinner if one of us (myself or Laura) would be able to help get her hair into a braid in the morning. She was pretty earnest in her query, and Laura asked her why she wanted her hair in a braid. The next morning (today) might be difficult but we could set aside a day next week to get up early and prepare for it and get a nice french braid going.
Déla responded that Thursday was the day for a reason. She started to explain there was a thing, no, some of her friends, no, online… I stepped in and asked “Are a bunch of your friends wearing braids tomorrow?” She was visibly relieved and said “Yes, it’s just a thing some of my friends are doing tomorrow.”
Thing is, I knew that wasn’t the case which is why I stepped in. Déla and I have the same phone, so when I noticed I had a new message I checked it, only it wasn’t my phone I was checking. What I saw was a forwarded text from one of her friends. It was an image of a girl from behind with her hair braided, and text saying something to the effect of March 23 girls should wear their hair in a braid and see if any boys notice.
We need to have our phones differentiated better.
So Déla got up early this morning and Laura braided her hair. I wish I had gotten a picture. I don’t know how many of her friends or other girls at school participated in this experiment, nor do I know how widespread this experiment might be.
Searching online for the image my daughter was texted (unsuccessfully) the one thing I found that was consistent was a connection between March 23 and The Hunger Games. Apparently the first movie was released on this day a few years ago. I have not read the books not watched the films so I am not aware of any connection, nor do I think my daughter is aware.
I don’t have a conclusion or a way to wrap this up so I’ll end this post like this:
Did your daughter wear braids today?