Sesame Street head writer and puppeteer Joey Mazzarino created an adorable, uplifting new song to encourage his young daughter to love her natural hair.
The natural hair discussion has been taking over the Black community, launching much- needed efforts to encourage young Black women to embrace their natural hair.
Thanks to Mazzarino, the discussion now has a catchy new tune to go along with it.
It all started when Mazzarino’s daughter, Segi, was finding it hard to love her natural hair.
Mazzarino and his wife adopted the Ethiopian girl when she was just a baby, and as white parents they admitted that they weren’t really sure what to do with Segi’s hair.
“I didn’t know how to take care of [her hair],” he said. “I don’t take care of my own hair very well…(founder of Carol’s Daughter) Lisa Price’s husband works for Sesame Street and he’s one of our crew members. He would bring in stuff for me and Lisa would tell me, ‘OK, this is how you do this.’ “
He added that since his wife is an actress there were many times that he was left with the responsibility of taking care of Segi’s hair and without Lisa and her husband, he isn’t sure how things would have played out.
“Thanks to Lisa and [her husband] Gordon, they taught me how to use certain products,” he added.
With this experience in mind, Mazzarino felt it was time for Sesame Street to embrace the natural hair movement as well.
The song features a cute Black puppet singing on about loving her hair.
Throughout the jingle, she shows examples of ways girls can wear their natural hair.
She demonstrates styles from cornrows to a gorgeous Afro, while telling the audience that she is thankful for all the things her hair can do.
