The 'Black Panther: Wakanda Forever' actress credits the Marvel superhero franchise with helping her embrace her own beauty as she initially struggled to love her natural hair.
- Nov 15, 2022
AceShowbiz - Letitia Wright used to believe "straighter hair was better." The "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" star explains the Marvel franchise centering on Black superheroes helped her "embrace" her "own beauty" instead of adhering to Western standards.
"I think that unfortunately, I was pulled into the belief that straighter hair was better and unfortunately I did hair processing as a kid and lost all the natural beauty of it," the 29-year-old actress told Glamour magazine's Unfiltered video series.
"But then it was actually playing Shuri and having her braids and seeing everything be so celebrated in the films that really encouraged me to embrace my own beauty with my hair. So yeah, that's been a journey that I've been on and one I'm really proud of."
Letitia was "definitely inspired" by Shuri - her character in the movie - and her "pretty cool" hairstyles. She said, "I was definitely inspired by the looks in the new movie. Shuri has a mohawk in the middle, so then the sides had to be cut down. It's a pretty cool look, but it would take a while for it to just get all in sync and I just felt inspired to just do the chop."
The "Small Axe" star works on "combating" her insecurities by working on her "inner beauty." Letitia said, "I can see how those standards that are out there or those expectations can make you feel insecure or not good enough. But it's really about reversing that, I think it's about finding out what makes you beautiful on the inside and allowing that to shine."
"And I think I'm finding my way through that. So if you see me being confident of flexin', it's because it's the inner beauty that I've established in myself before anyone else tells me to. So I think that's my way of combating all of those expectations. At the end of the day, it's just there to make people feel insecure and that's not really helpful."
