Me and My Hair: A blog by Kimberley Kinloch

What inspired you to write this book? 

I’ve been asked this question a few times since writing Me and my Hair, and I feel like I give a different reason each time I answer it. I think it’s because there were so many reasons for writing it. Part of me wrote it because I always wanted to write about something that was so important to me. When I grew up Black hair wasn’t really celebrated how it is now, not at my school anyway. My school was mostly white, so my friends didn’t really understand my natural hair. We didn’t study Black History so there was a big question mark over me and MY hair – there just wasn’t anything to represent my culture. This also applied out of school; films, books, television shows, music videos rarely celebrated the beauty and versatility of natural Afro hair. So, I wanted to share MY pride with Black and brown children, so they could be proud too.

I also wrote this for children without Afro hair, in they hope that they too would have somewhere to explore all the things they’d wanted to know about Afro hair, and even their own hair too. That’s the great thing about books, they allow you to walk in someone else’s shoes, travel the world and escape to you wherever you want. So, I think my main inspiration was to give children somewhere to lose themselves in and find themselves too.   

How would you suggest primary teachers use this book?  

Me and my Hair provides plenty of learning opportunities. It’s full of did-you-know style facts children can take away and share with friends/family. It also dives into difficult topics like hair discrimination in schools and workplaces, and the role Afro hair played in the slave trade. I know it’s said a lot, but this book really is PACKED with fascinating facts on every page. This makes it a great classroom resource and a perfect springboard for thoughtful and respectful discussion. If I were a teacher, I would read children a few pages, reflect on them and then ask children how the content might apply to them.
I.e. How do YOUR cornrows make you feel? What is it like having ginger hair? Do your parents cover their hair too? It really is a perfect book to get children thinking about each other’s differences and how to celebrate them too.

What motivated you to begin a career in writing/illustrating?

I’ve loved reading and writing from a very young age. I remember writing stories and reading them to my primary school class. I also enjoyed reading Jacqueline Wilson and Judy Blume books to my twin sister in our bunk beds before bedtime. It’s just something that came naturally to me and still does. I was amazed by books as a child, I loved the escape they offered. There wasn’t a time when I didn’t have my nose in a book.

It didn’t take long to decide I wanted to be a writer, so I decided to pursue a career in publishing when I left university.  However, there were some obstacles in the way as it turned out LOTS of people wanted to write books too! But my dad always told me as a child, “Kim, you can do anything you can put your mind to.”  So, I put my mind to it. And that would be my advice to any budding writers out there - keep reading, keep writing and keep going. It will happen.

What are the major influences in your work?

By biggest influence is my family. As I mentioned, my dad was my number one fan growing up, there was nothing, and I mean NOTHING, he thought I wasn’t capable of. With that sort of confidence behind me, it was hard not to believe in myself. My mum also gave up a lot so that my siblings and I could go out and live the lives we wanted. Put simply, they made it all possible for me and I’m forever grateful for that.

And now, as a mother myself, I often have my children in mind when I write, not only as the target audience, but as inspiration. I feel a huge responsibility to show them how to work hard to achieve the things you want from life. And I suddenly see why my dad believed in his children so much, because I believe in mine too.

Which books had a lasting impact on you as a child and why?

When I first read the Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling I was about eleven, the perfect age for a world of wizardry and fantasy. Until then I loved books, but this was a real turning point for me. I couldn’t believe how it felt to read them; everything felt so real, like I’d walked the corridors of Hogwarts and played Quidditch for Gryffindor. It made me want to write my own stories and become a published author (not just writing for my sister).

As I grew older, I studied Children’s Literature modules and discovered a beautiful picture book called The Red Tree written and illustrated by Shaun Tan. It was the first time I’d seen a children’s book deal with adult issues, in this case mental health, through the magic of storytelling. I still read this book today, and it never fails to give me goosebumps. It was then that I understood children’s book can be for any age. The book may be aimed at children, but the story belongs to whoever needs to hear it.

Another book called Looking for JJ by Anne Cassidy (and its sequel Finding Jennifer Jones), really stuck with me. It is a young adult thriller about a child who lives with a dark secret and it really is quite chilling. I read it every few years and there’s always something I hadn’t noticed before, that makes me question where my loyalty lies. And, without fail, I find myself thinking about it well after I’ve finished reading it.

For me, the best books are those you find yourself reading over and over again but you’re not too sure why. They’re like old friends that you keep coming back to. Hopefully one day in the future someone will dust off a copy of Me and my Hair, read it all over again, not sure why they picked it up in the first place, but happy that they did.