Meet Kylee Howell from Salt Lake City, Utah, who owns a barbershop.
When Kylee was small, she had some serious issue with the way her hair looked. She wanted them to be straight, silky and long, like the ‘other girls.’
Dove recently narrated Kylee’s story through a powerful short film, written and produced by none other than Shonda Rhimes. All this to redefine the beauty standards troubling women across the globe. The film is called ‘Meet Kylee.’
In the video, Kylee says, “Looking back at old pictures just kind of reminds me of what it’s like to not know yourself. It wasn’t until I cut my hair short that I really felt like I had come into myself … I made a choice to be happy. I made a choice to be genuine with who I was.”
Gradually, Kylee began loving her hair so much so that she opened a barber shop in her city which is gendered inclusive. She says, “Barber shops are known to be pretty hyper-masculine places. I realized there might be room to create a new haircut experience.”
Interestingly, Dove hasn’t confirmed the sexuality of Kylee in the video. In explaining their impetus for creating the film, Dove has mentioned that three out of four women who identify as lesbian or gay believe society doesn’t care about their beauty.
Shonda Rhimes, too, has some beautiful things to say about the concept. “Every time you look at your screen and see a woman portrayed just as she is, sharing her humanity, being boldly herself, you are looking at someone beautiful.”
Dove’s Vice President of Marketing, Nick Soukas, told HuffPost, “Through this work, we’ve touched on and challenged beauty stereotypes tied to size, shape, and femininity.”
Watch the beautiful video here: