You’ve spoken about the importance of everyone finding their own sense of beauty. What inspired you to make the video last year about your dreadlocks and embracing natural hair?
I wanted to celebrate who I am. I am half black and I am so proud of it. Growing up, however, I sometimes didn't feel like I should have. I got my hair straightened at a very early age because that was something that many curly-haired Afro-Latina girls do. We wanted that "euro-centric" look, as if having big curly hair was something I should be ashamed of. As I grew up and started to learn more about my heritage, I became more and more proud of who I was. So getting dreadlocks was really my way of both embracing my roots and celebrating them and also breaking a stigma that dreadlocks were a bad look. I believe the only way to break that stigma was to, first, help to normalize it by showing girls that we can have dreadlocks and be a successful business woman, and second, to educate people about the story behind it. That's what I did.
