I got my (now 18-year-old) daughter into Ao3 back in 2021. I taught her she should always comment - even if the fic looks old or abandoned or whatever. She did.
Well - she got this email this morning:
The fic was written in 2014 and essentially abandoned.
Bethy read and reviewed in 2021 (and was actually the only person who had commented at all).
Today in 2025 - the final chapter was posted by the author and this was her reply to Bethy’s comment.
———
Never question whether a fic is too old to comment on.
as a POC I can’t overstate how much I appreciate this, the third one especially who has this look that has lost so much hope, you can see her eyes swell in real time post transformation and it just goes to show that looking good makes us feel good
it warms my heart to see so many reblog this from me, yet unless you’re Black? (with little exceptions) I don’t think you all really get it, so let me really paint the story here.
the thing about Black hair is that it is varied, like incredibly so. some of us luck out and get what we dub “Good Hair”, hair that is normally not as tightly curled and manageable with a little to midrange amount of effort. But many MANY of us have natural hair that is tough and thick, the curls are small, sometimes very tightly wound, it makes brushing and combing damn near impossible on top of other hair care methods. short as well as braided hair isn’t always desired but for many of us we have no choice, it’s just easier to maintain it that way, it is a sentence, not a style.
keep in mind that hairstyle is a statement, especially when you’re Black, your hair says so much about you in this community in particular. we also have the fact that our standard is held against White standards of beauty, and that is a whole different conversation involving privilege, systemic racism, and internalized hatred—like bitch, this has LAYERS!
take the age into account here for all these women, but in this case I’m specifically talking about the third. now, these are all educated assumptions, but you know where those tears are from? she’s had to live with this hair her whole life! and you just KNOW she’s tried everything!—heat, curling, straightening, perms, softeners/relaxers, HUNDREDS of products that make hundreds of promises, and many of these risk taking out the natural oil and proteins in hair which is a death sentence for Black hair. she had given up hope that anything good could ever be done I’ll bet. that transformation did more than style her hair, it gave her years upon years of hope; Listen to Black folk when they tell you, it’s more than just hair.
this man is doing more than hair, he’s changing lives…I just hope he knows that.
Hi, my name's Kim! This is pretty much a multi-fandom blog with some art that I post from time to time. I hope you have a nice day!
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