Inspired by Dee & Tyra

As an advocate for natural hair, who takes pictures to promote natural hairstyling, I became an early fan of America’s Next Top Model. Not only was the show fun to watch, the shoots, the feedback and especially Tyra’s tips were always incredibly useful.

Then I happened to see the Tyra show where she interviewed Alek Wek about her book, Sudan and modeling. They also spoke about the fact that Black models were nearly gone from the catwalk. It didn’t sit right with me either that Black models were “out”.

The next day while browsing nappturality.com, the most inspiring discussion board for natural women, owned and managed by Patricia Gaines, I got the idea to start Miss Nappturality; a pageant in search of America’s Next Natural Model to promote Black models and natural hair at the same time.

It wasn’t easy but with my own limited budget, I redesigned going-natual.com then shipped 10 boxes filled with items to be used for the challenges to the selected models. That's how I got the the first ever online natural hair pageant started and it has only grown since then.

One only has to look at the photos of the winners over the years as evidence that the tireless hours behind my laptop paid off. It is my dream that one day one of the winners will grace the catwalk of a high fashion designer or the cover of a beauty magazine, adding another dimension of diversity to the world of beauty.