Shaienne Knox

Shaienne Knox is a rising junior at Mesa Ridge High where she is a leader of the school’s marching band and head of the Diversity Club. Shaienne applied to YDA wanting to make a film exploring black hair: the variety of hair styles that African American girls wear, the commodification of black hair, the pressure to straighten and conform to white standards of beauty, and the role of hair in a political movement for change. Shaienne’s access to an intergenerational sample of African American girls and women – and an intimacy with which she enabled in her interviews – bring depth and dimension to this lively topic.