WEBVTT

1
00:00:00.270 --> 00:00:03.300
- This is my official public revealing.

2
00:00:03.300 --> 00:00:07.450
I have only been bald in
the privacy of my home,

3
00:00:07.450 --> 00:00:09.793
and in the company of close friends.

4
00:00:12.800 --> 00:00:15.970
I'm Congresswoman Ayanna
Pressley and this is a word

5
00:00:15.970 --> 00:00:18.940
about why my Black hair story

6
00:00:18.940 --> 00:00:21.663
is both personal and political.

7
00:00:22.540 --> 00:00:26.380
Before I was an elected
official, I did everything.

8
00:00:26.380 --> 00:00:28.870
I wore wigs, I wore extensions,

9
00:00:28.870 --> 00:00:33.090
and then about four or five years ago,

10
00:00:33.090 --> 00:00:36.785
I decided to get Senegalese twists

11
00:00:36.785 --> 00:00:39.000
all the way down to my waist.

12
00:00:39.000 --> 00:00:42.393
And what happened is that I
got these Senegalese twists

13
00:00:42.393 --> 00:00:45.430
and I felt like I met myself fully

14
00:00:45.430 --> 00:00:46.440
for the first time.

15
00:00:46.440 --> 00:00:48.710
You know, I sort of looked
in the mirror and I said,

16
00:00:48.710 --> 00:00:51.150
oh, there I am.

17
00:00:51.150 --> 00:00:52.660
And it felt good.

18
00:00:52.660 --> 00:00:56.160
So what started out as a
transitional hairstyle,

19
00:00:56.160 --> 00:00:59.830
ultimately became a statement,

20
00:00:59.830 --> 00:01:01.980
and something that I was
very intentional about.

21
00:01:01.980 --> 00:01:05.180
And I was very aware this hairstyle

22
00:01:05.180 --> 00:01:10.180
could be, would be,
filtered and interpreted

23
00:01:10.930 --> 00:01:15.360
by some as a political statement

24
00:01:15.360 --> 00:01:19.810
that was militant, or people said,

25
00:01:19.810 --> 00:01:21.030
people will think you're angry.

26
00:01:21.030 --> 00:01:22.217
And I said, well, they already think that.

27
00:01:22.217 --> 00:01:25.300
What I was not prepared for

28
00:01:25.300 --> 00:01:28.140
was the glorious gift and blessing

29
00:01:28.140 --> 00:01:31.590
of the acceptance and the community,

30
00:01:31.590 --> 00:01:34.320
and the affirmation.

31
00:01:34.320 --> 00:01:37.420
Now, I walk into rooms and little girls

32
00:01:37.420 --> 00:01:38.840
are wearing t-shirts that say,

33
00:01:38.840 --> 00:01:41.690
my congresswoman wears braids,

34
00:01:41.690 --> 00:01:44.867
and we receive letters
from all over the globe

35
00:01:44.867 --> 00:01:46.690
of women who talk about

36
00:01:47.840 --> 00:01:51.310
their own emancipation that they feel

37
00:01:51.310 --> 00:01:53.670
that I've given them permission.

38
00:01:53.670 --> 00:01:56.650
My twists have become such a synonymous

39
00:01:56.650 --> 00:02:00.550
and conflated part of not
only my personal identity,

40
00:02:00.550 --> 00:02:01.850
and how I show up in the world,

41
00:02:01.850 --> 00:02:03.170
but my political brand.

42
00:02:03.170 --> 00:02:05.180
That's why I think it's important

43
00:02:05.180 --> 00:02:09.590
that I'm transparent
about this new normal,

44
00:02:09.590 --> 00:02:12.260
and living with alopecia.

45
00:02:12.260 --> 00:02:17.260
In the fall, when I was
getting my hair re-twisted

46
00:02:17.870 --> 00:02:19.530
is the first time that I was made aware

47
00:02:19.530 --> 00:02:21.320
that I have some patches.

48
00:02:21.320 --> 00:02:25.560
From there, it accelerated very quickly.

49
00:02:25.560 --> 00:02:30.270
I had been waking up every morning

50
00:02:30.270 --> 00:02:31.933
to sink fulls of hair.

51
00:02:33.690 --> 00:02:37.580
Every night, I was employing all the tools

52
00:02:40.580 --> 00:02:42.900
that I had been schooled
and trained in throughout

53
00:02:42.900 --> 00:02:44.960
my life as a Black woman,

54
00:02:44.960 --> 00:02:48.110
because I thought that I could stop this.

55
00:02:48.110 --> 00:02:50.580
I wrapped my hair.

56
00:02:50.580 --> 00:02:52.440
I wore a bonnet.

57
00:02:52.440 --> 00:02:55.090
I slept on a silk pillowcase.

58
00:02:55.090 --> 00:02:56.740
And yet and still, every morning,

59
00:02:57.650 --> 00:03:00.130
which I faced with dread,

60
00:03:00.130 --> 00:03:02.320
I did not want to go to sleep,

61
00:03:02.320 --> 00:03:04.470
because I did not want
the morning to come,

62
00:03:05.730 --> 00:03:07.550
where I would remove this bonnet

63
00:03:08.620 --> 00:03:13.620
and my wrap, and be met
with more hair in the sink.

64
00:03:15.000 --> 00:03:18.930
And an image in the mirror,
in the mirror of a person

65
00:03:20.520 --> 00:03:24.053
who increasingly felt
like a stranger to me.

66
00:03:26.540 --> 00:03:29.696
And so, impeachment
eve, the last little bit

67
00:03:29.696 --> 00:03:31.543
of my hair came out.

68
00:03:33.060 --> 00:03:34.860
I was completely bald,

69
00:03:34.860 --> 00:03:39.860
and in a matter of hours
was going to have to walk

70
00:03:40.410 --> 00:03:43.040
into the floor, the house chamber,

71
00:03:43.040 --> 00:03:44.490
the house of representatives,

72
00:03:45.510 --> 00:03:50.510
and cast a vote in support
of Articles of impeachment.

73
00:03:50.560 --> 00:03:54.980
And so I didn't have
the luxury of mourning

74
00:03:56.620 --> 00:03:59.270
what felt like the loss of a limb.

75
00:03:59.270 --> 00:04:01.070
It was a moment of transformation

76
00:04:01.070 --> 00:04:02.220
not of my choosing.

77
00:04:02.220 --> 00:04:04.308
It it with a heavy heart,
but a resolved one,

78
00:04:04.308 --> 00:04:08.150
and because I believe our
democracy is worth fighting for,

79
00:04:08.150 --> 00:04:11.470
I will vote to impeach Donald J. Trump,

80
00:04:11.470 --> 00:04:13.900
and I urge my colleagues to do the same.

81
00:04:13.900 --> 00:04:17.770
But I knew the moment
demanded that I stand in it

82
00:04:17.770 --> 00:04:19.160
and that I lean in.

83
00:04:19.160 --> 00:04:23.423
And I exited the floor as soon as I could,

84
00:04:24.700 --> 00:04:26.383
and I hid in a bathroom stall.

85
00:04:28.235 --> 00:04:31.940
I felt naked, exposed, vulnerable.

86
00:04:31.940 --> 00:04:34.030
I felt embarrassed.

87
00:04:34.030 --> 00:04:35.433
I felt ashamed.

88
00:04:36.560 --> 00:04:37.930
I felt betrayed.

89
00:04:37.930 --> 00:04:41.537
And then I also felt
that I was participating

90
00:04:41.537 --> 00:04:43.670
in a cultural betrayal,

91
00:04:43.670 --> 00:04:45.447
because of all the little girls

92
00:04:45.447 --> 00:04:48.680
writing me letters, come up to me,

93
00:04:48.680 --> 00:04:52.443
take selfies with me,
hashtag twist nation.

94
00:04:53.770 --> 00:04:55.520
And I thought of those t-shirts

95
00:04:55.520 --> 00:04:57.340
that I just kept revisiting them.

96
00:04:57.340 --> 00:04:58.840
And I immediately knew

97
00:04:58.840 --> 00:05:02.100
that I was going to want
to, when I felt ready,

98
00:05:02.100 --> 00:05:05.690
go public, because I felt like I owed

99
00:05:05.690 --> 00:05:07.730
all those little girls an explanation.

100
00:05:07.730 --> 00:05:09.530
My husband says I don't.

101
00:05:09.530 --> 00:05:12.950
You know, that everything
doesn't have to be political.

102
00:05:12.950 --> 00:05:15.090
The reality is that I'm Black,

103
00:05:15.090 --> 00:05:17.250
and I'm a Black woman,

104
00:05:17.250 --> 00:05:20.220
and I'm a Black woman in politics,

105
00:05:20.220 --> 00:05:22.650
and everything I do is political.

106
00:05:22.650 --> 00:05:25.440
I think you might overly
intellectualize it

107
00:05:25.440 --> 00:05:27.380
and say, it's just hair.

108
00:05:27.380 --> 00:05:29.610
People are well-meaning
and have been reminding me

109
00:05:29.610 --> 00:05:32.990
of the India Arie song, I Am Not My Hair,

110
00:05:32.990 --> 00:05:34.193
you are not your hair.

111
00:05:35.510 --> 00:05:36.583
And that's true.

112
00:05:37.570 --> 00:05:38.570
But I still want it.

113
00:05:39.720 --> 00:05:43.343
So, I'm trying to find my way here,

114
00:05:44.380 --> 00:05:49.380
and I do believe going public will help.

115
00:05:52.230 --> 00:05:54.993
This is my official public revealing.

116
00:05:56.930 --> 00:06:00.790
I am ready now because I wanna be free

117
00:06:00.790 --> 00:06:05.790
from the secret, and the
shame that that secret

118
00:06:06.600 --> 00:06:07.613
carries with it.

119
00:06:09.530 --> 00:06:12.400
And because I'm not here
just to occupy space.

120
00:06:12.400 --> 00:06:13.533
I'm here to create it.

121
00:06:14.930 --> 00:06:18.020
And I wanna be free.

122
00:06:18.020 --> 00:06:21.430
I am making peace with having alopecia.

123
00:06:21.430 --> 00:06:23.320
I have not arrived there.

124
00:06:23.320 --> 00:06:27.123
I am very early in my alopecia journey.

125
00:06:33.200 --> 00:06:35.253
But I'm making progress everyday,

126
00:06:36.760 --> 00:06:40.820
and that's why I'm doing this today.

127
00:06:40.820 --> 00:06:43.500
It's about self-agency.

128
00:06:43.500 --> 00:06:44.993
It's about power.

129
00:06:46.200 --> 00:06:48.083
It's about acceptance.

130
00:06:49.130 --> 00:06:51.800
Right now on this journey,
when I feel the most

131
00:06:53.720 --> 00:06:58.653
unlike myself is when I am wearing a wig.

132
00:07:00.490 --> 00:07:02.290
So I think that means I'm on my way.

133
00:07:03.990 --> 00:07:04.960
I've been experimenting,

134
00:07:04.960 --> 00:07:09.960
and so I have several
units, one I call flotus,

135
00:07:10.770 --> 00:07:14.560
because it feels very
Michelle Obama to me.

136
00:07:14.560 --> 00:07:17.750
This one I call the OG because
this was the first one.

137
00:07:17.750 --> 00:07:21.210
I'm trying to get to a
place where I give myself

138
00:07:21.210 --> 00:07:25.943
the space to be, to find joy in options.