Tessa Thompson

It worked.

He was not wrong, you know, in the 1980s.

But I think my mom really wanting to make sure that I didn't feel like I had to make any concessions of self that I could show up exactly as I was.

And she did it in really small ways.

For example, I remember very early on wanting to

straighten my hair, to get my hair chemically straightened.

And my mom was very sweet and very generous.

And she's like, we can investigate the whole process and do it.

And we investigated everything.

I had had like a series of very terrible blowouts that the weather didn't agree with.

And she was like, whatever makes you happy.

But she outlined everything for me.

And finally, it was my choice.

I said, no, I want to keep my hair just like this.

And I remember when I made that choice, she cried because she was so happy.

But she had given the choice to me, you know.

And I think that was just an early indication that was so helpful for me then when I navigated Hollywood and eventually was on sets where people deeply decided that I had to straighten my hair, that I had to look one way or another.

My mom gave me an early sense of self enough that I could say, no, actually, I want to look like myself.

Yeah.

And also I think she did a really phenomenal job at raising a mixed race daughter and like connecting me to my black identity and making sure that I was like in those spaces.