Braids on the Page

The cover of A Black Girl and Her Braids featuring Brittney Bond's illustrations.

The origins of A Black Girl and Her Braids can be traced to a 2021 trip to Los Angeles. Owens had recently gotten knotless braids and was struck by the confidence and joy the style inspired. While visiting a friend, she began recording ideas into her phone, hoping to capture the feeling in a poem. At the same time, conversations surrounding the CROWN Act-which prohibits discrimination based on hairstyles associated with race-were gaining momentum across the country. Owens saw an opportunity to celebrate Black girlhood while also acknowledging the realities many Black women and girls continue to face.

The poem quickly found an audience online and later became A Black Girl and Her Braids, a children's book published by Penguin Random House.

If Owens supplied the voice, illustrator Brittney Bond supplied the visual counterpart. When Penguin presented several illustrators for consideration, Owens was immediately drawn to Bond's work. In a book centered on braids, the details mattered.

"When I saw Brittney's work and how she was drawing braids, I said, yeah, I have to pick her," Owens said. "In a book about braids, it has to be about the braids."

The collaboration unfolded largely through editors and designers rather than direct conversations between author and illustrator. Yet Bond's illustrations proved to be an ideal match for Owens' verse, bringing to life a dazzling variety of hairstyles while expanding the poem's sense of movement and joy.

Readers have responded to both.

Since the book's publication in January, Owens has embarked on an ambitious schedule of school visits, bookstore appearances, and community events. Some have been traditional author visits. Others have felt more like performances, complete with songs, audience participation, and conversations about identity, culture, and self-expression.

One of the surprises, Owens said, has been the book's ability to connect with readers far beyond the audience she initially imagined.

"I think what is surprising to me, and just so heartwarming, is that in sharing about my own experience being a Black girl and having braids, it has allowed kids and adults of all races, all ages, to take a moment and appreciate their own hair and what they love about it," she said.

Owens and her book. (Photo by Germán Vázquez)

That response has been especially evident during school visits. At predominantly white schools, students often encounter discussions of hair discrimination for the first time. Many are surprised to learn that certain hairstyles have historically been restricted in schools and workplaces. The conversations that follow have become one of the most rewarding aspects of the tour.

Other reactions have highlighted the importance of representation. One reader wrote to Owens after noticing a Black girl in a wheelchair among the book's characters. The inclusion was intentional. The story is not about disability, Owens noted, but representation doesn't always require explanation. Sometimes it simply means allowing children to see themselves on the page.

The book's youngest readers have found their own ways of engaging with it.

Owens laughs when she describes showing the finished book to Amani and Amelia, the daughters of fellow Ithaca College alumna Sarah Myers '10. The girls, to whom the book is dedicated, immediately began pointing out hairstyles they wanted to try themselves. Similar stories have emerged elsewhere, with young readers treating the book almost like a lookbook and bringing it to hair appointments as inspiration.

The success of A Black Girl and Her Braids has already sparked ideas for what comes next. Owens hopes to expand the project into a series, drawing from other poems she has written celebrating Black hairstyles and Black girlhood.

Long before she was leading school visits and book events, Owens was creating spaces for poets to gather.

While at Ithaca College, Owens was an MLK Scholar and founded Spit That!, the college's first spoken-word poetry organization. The group hosted open mics, workshops, and performances that gave students a place to write, share work, and build community. Looking back, Owens sees a direct line between those experiences and the work she does today.

"I'm very grateful for my time at Ithaca," she said.

Fifteen years after graduation, that community remains close. Friends from Ithaca continue to attend book events, cheer on her work, and introduce their children to the stories she now shares with audiences around the country.

For an artist who has spent her career creating spaces for people to listen, participate, and see themselves reflected in a story, that may be the most fitting audience of all.