Wise Beyond Her Years: 13-Year-Old Advocates For Black Haircare In Foster Care

Lena Ford is not your typical 13-year-old.

Ford is making her way to the top as an entrepreneur. She strives to connect Black haircare and Black children in the foster care system. Ford is introducing the “Embrace Their Roots Campaign” as her most recent work to focus on addressing these needs in the haircare industry and foster care.

Ford founded the Kinship Family Initiative with Tressie Bloodworth-Ford as the co-founder and executive director. The plan provides kinship families with a support system and adheres to the motto “the power of giving back to your community.”

Ford’s work is providing access and raising awareness for Black haircare needs. According to Face2FaceAfrica, the campaign seeks to provide products and additional resources from hair companies to homeless and foster families. This allows haircare companies to work with families in foster care and homeless shelters.

Ford’s campaign emphasizes an area she holds dear to her. In addition to providing haircare resources for families in the homeless or foster care system, educating these families on Black haircare is an important objective Ford addresses. As there is generally a need for more knowledge and experience held by foster care families when it comes to the particular haircare needs for African American children, this is often overlooked. Special attention and unique products are necessary when treating or styling hair for African Americans.

To address the distinct haircare requirements for African Americans, the “Embrace Their Roots Campaign” highlights four strategies:

Using social media to increase awareness.
Educating families through workshops.
Establishing relationships with companies to provide discounts and donations for families.
Creating a group on Facebook to serve as a platform for people to connect.

Ford is definitely an example of Black girl magic in creating this platform to advocate for others in need.