BELLAIRE • MEMORIAL • RIVER OAKS • TANGLEWOOD • WEST UNIVERSITY

Ode to My Afro

By Anastasia Patoka-Smith, age 8 | March 27, 2024

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CURLY CONFIDENCE Eight-year-old Anastasia Patoka-Smith wrote her poem Ode to My Afro to inspire people to be confident in their own skin.

What inspires me? My heritage, and being able to use my voice to speak up for natural hair and loving your beauty as you are.

I am Ukrainian and African American, and I would love for the whole world to know that diversity is beautiful. I am proud of my roots, and my favorite feature is my natural afro. One day during a creative writing class, our teacher taught us about odes. We had the chance to write an ode about something that is special to us. I decided to write Ode To My Afro. I love wearing my natural hair, and want to see more girls my age rock their natural curls. I think that the beauty of natural hair is something to be celebrated, not straightened and made to look more “acceptable.”

When I showed the poem to my parents, they loved it – and they helped me make it into a song! It was so fun to work with a music producer at Future Stars of Houston to get the right music and record the song in a professional studio.

Now my song is playing on Top 40 radio stations, and creating opportunities for me to perform from Houston all the way to NYC. I even performed at New York Fashion Week! I want to create music that can inspire others as well as get them to dance and put a smile on their face.

The best part of doing this song and putting it out for the world to hear has been all the little girls (and even a few boys) that have told me how much they love the song and how it represents them! Our crowns are a work of art, and if I can inspire every curly-haired kid to see the beauty in their hair and rock their afro, I think that would be a great accomplishment for eight years old.

Editor’s note: Listen to Ode to My Afro on Spotify, Apple Music, or YouTube. See more about Anastasia at anastasiasings.com.

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