Several weeks ago I shared my frustrations about a recent visit to Target in Shoreview. I had gone in to buy some hair products for hair, and came to quickly realize that there was not much of anything there for people who looked anything like me, regardless of whether they had permed hair or natural hair. I was absolutely in rage.

However, I did something constructive about my frustration. Instead of just venting about it, and sharing my anger with you all, I took my concerns to someone who could do something about it – management! Granted I did not believe that they would do much, especially when they asked me to fill out a customer complaint card. Even so, I said what needed to be said, and even shared that I felt that there lack of products that catered to the needs of my ethnicity, made me feel like I did not belong.

To be honest, I promised myself that I would never go in the store again. But it is difficult to honor such a promise when it is the closest thing to your house, and it is snowing, and you have to get back home quickly. So a few weeks after this whole ordeal, I found myself in Target again. Since I was there, and almost a month had passed since my last visit, I strolled down the hair product aisle. And low and behold, what I saw was like Christmas to my eyes. Hair products for my type of hair lined the shelves of the aisle from top to bottom! Hallelujah! And I am not talking about cheap products with so many cancer-filled ingredients. No, they had Kinky Kurly, Shea Moisture, and so much more.

Still, they did not have the quantity of products that other Target’s carried, but they had just enough to make this girl smile as I was leaving the store. And it made me realize, even though I already knew, that things change when we open up our mouths and communicate what we are experiencing, instead of holding those things inside, hoping that the world will get a clue.

Advocacy rocks!