Things are always misconstrued.....

We sat down with Maya, a 17 year old senior in high school from Boston, Massachusetts and asked her to tell us why storytelling was important to her, she says, "I identify as an Afro-Latina, my mom is black and my dad is Puerto Rican."

"I think storytelling is very important because you get to hear other perspectives straight from the source. Things are always misconstrued and you want to hear them from the people telling them. I chose to talk about this story because this was the first time I realized my own racial identity because I was at a PWI at 5 years old, and this is something that’s different for everyone."

"For white people thought they don’t often have to think about their race and what they look like in comparison to others because THEY’RE the majority- for POC it’s a lot different. Looking back at this story, I wish I would’ve told myself that straight doesn’t equal better. That’s something that I always thought-that straightening hair is better, professional, more formal. For every formal event I’ve been to my hairs always been straightened and it’s something that’s been engrained in my mind. It’s okay to straighten your hair when you want to, but in my experience I had to learn that that wasn’t a way out."

Maya Hernandez