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When they say speak things into existence. This is a Cinderella Story about how one man spoke his oscar nomination and ended wining an oscar for his animation “Hair Love”

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“Hair Love,” a story about a black father who struggles and eventually succeeds in styling his young daughter’s hair, won the Academy Award for best animated short film on Sunday.

The story, which once existed only in the form of a dream and a Kickstarter campaign, is also the basis of a best-selling children’s book.

Matthew Cherry, the former NFL player who wrote and directed “Hair Love,” predicted that he would be nominated for an Oscar in a 2012 tweet that resurfaced Sunday.
 However, the meaning, as explained at the Oscars, was so much deeper than that.

“‘Hair Love’ was done so we could see more representation in animation and to normalize black hair,” writer and director Matthew Cherry said in his acceptance speech. 

However, Matthew Cherry had another message too. 

“There’s a very important issue – the CROWN Act. If we can get this passed in all 50 states, we could help stories like Deandre Arnold who’s our special guest tonight,” he said. 

The CROWN Act, or the ‘Create a Respectful and Open Workplace for Natural Hair’ Act, is a bill that would ban hair discrimination in the workplace. It has been introduced in several states including Tennessee.

RELATED: Tennessee bill seeks to prevent discrimination based on a person’s hairstyle

“I have a lot of professional women who are like, ‘Oh, girl, I would love to have this style but I can’t wear that to work,'” Dickey said.

Dickey is a hairstylist and a salon owner, so self-love and feeling your best are two things she takes seriously.

“It really hurts me because it’s an expression. I feel like every culture expresses themselves by the way they wear their hair,” she said. 

It is something she thinks about, especially as a mom.

“My boys… I have two boys and they are in elementary school, and we let them express themselves anyway they want to – especially when it comes to their hair,” she said. 

Dickey adds that means a lot to them as a family.

“Let them know it is beautiful the way that it is,” she said. 

Lawmakers introduced Tennessee’s Crown Act last July. It now sits in committee in the state senate, but Dickey said regardless, watching ‘Hair Love’ was sweet, and seeing it win was magical and inclusion will always be important.

HAIR LOVE Accepts the Oscar for Animated Short

Hair Love | Oscar®-Winning Short Film (Full) | Sony Pictures Animation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNw8V_Fkw28

Hair Love | Oscar®-Winning Short Film (Full) | Sony Pictures Animation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNw8V_Fkw28