Doc McStuffins, "Curly Q"

As a mom of two beautiful, curly haired African-American girls, it is sometimes difficult to find ways to help them love their hair when what they see are flowing blonde or brunette locks on television and on their friends' heads at school.  I've even had struggles with learning to love and care for my own mass of coils while growing up.  It's very tempting to use harsh and damaging straightening techniques to make all three of our heads look like what society generally refers to as "beautiful."


I can talk to my girls until I'm blue in the face, and model what my husband and I believe are images of natural beauty that are quite often overlooked, but if my daughters only see those images at home, there is no reinforcement of our teachings.  When Viola Davis showed up at the Oscar's last year sporting her natural hair, I couldn't stop smiling.  This year's outbreak movie star, Lupita Nyong'o is another absolutely gorgeous black woman that I am happy my children get to see as examples of what natural beauty is.  What she does with her "teenie weenie afro" makes me want to chop off all of my hair.  She is beautiful and proud of her dark skin and amazing hair.  My children are still a bit young to appreciate Viola & Lupita, but they can certainly relate to the super cute, six year old Doc McStuffins and her wonderful family.

In a previous post, I talked about how much I love Disney Junior's Doc McStuffins.  The episode that first aired on "Take Your Child to Work Day," Thursday, April 24, is one that I can't wait to own when it comes out on DVD.  It's called, "Take Your Doc to Work Day."  Maybe it's pregnancy hormones, but I cried through most of this episode, watching Doc travel to her mother's medical office to spend the day with her.  Doc has her own roster of patients to see and is told that if she need a consult with her mom, that she would be available.

After her mom leaves her to her work, the magical stethoscope Doc wears bring all of the toys in the room to life, including Fabio, a modeling clay toy and Dolly a doll dressed as a princess.  The third toy is new.  She tells Doc her name is Curly Q, but prefers to be called, "Q" since she doesn't like the curly part; her hair isn't colorful like Fabio's and she can't swing it like Dolly's.

While Doc fixes the other toys' problems. Q finds a hat to cover her head of thick, curly hair and when it's her turn for a checkup, she does not want to take off the hat, which Lambie notices that she was not wearing earlier.  After Q tells Doc that she doesn't like her hair, Doc visits her mother for a consult and collects pictures of herself from her mother's desk of her with various hairstyles.  Doc returns to the room and shares with Q that there was a time when she did not like her hair until she discovered her signature style, a purple headband and pigtails.

Doc and friends sing a song about loving their hairdo, and encourages Q to love hers, too.  During the course of the song, Q tries new hairstyles and finally settles on one that she loves.  After the song, it turns out that one of Dr. McStuffins' patients really likes it, too.  At the end, Q asks her new friends to call her by her full name, "Curly Q," because being curly is part of who she is.  By helping her find a style she likes, Curly Q learns that her hair is beautiful and perfect, just the way it is, exactly the lesson my girls needed to learn from someone other than me.