It takes a village – Anya’s Paris Trip

Parents book shoots with us for a variety of reasons – some are in need of updates for their child’s modeling portfolio, but we now get tons of parents who just love the artistic photos and want their child to see themselves in a different light.  Anya and her parents moved to Germany from the US a few years ago.  Since then, Anya has struggled with embracing her natural curls since there is not much in terms of representation and diversity in her new neighborhood and school.  Anya’s mom says, “We decided to book the shoot with CreativeSoul because of their message to our young girls.  The message that you are beautiful, fierce, confident and everything in between with your big hair.  These photos embraced everything about what we are trying to teach our young girls.”

They decided to travel from Germany to Paris to experience our AfroArt sessions.  When we found out that they were traveling in, we invited them to participate in the Natural Hair Academy event that we were attending the same weekend in Paris.  We knew that it would be a great experience for both Anya and her mom to not only see positive diverse images, but to also learn to learn of various ways to deal, comb, cut and style her hair.  “She was in awe of how many girls/women looked liked her.  She experienced beauty on a variety of levels that she had never felt before.  She made so many friends that we’ve actually kept in touch with!  One her absolute favorite moments was meeting the book author and learning the story of how the author had to learn how to like her hair.  Anya was once again in awe, that she knew someone like her.”

We are proud to see how the “village” came together in Paris to help this young girl embrace her curls and culture.  Check out the video below for a recap of Anya’s experience at NHA and our AfroArt session in Paris.

• Photography: CreativeSoul Photography
• Backdrop/Props: Ettavee
• Hair: Sephora Joannes
• Dress: Charabia Paris