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Friday, Aug 22, 2008 9:00 PM UTC

Sassy in pink

A seventh grader chooses to fight school administrators who suspended her for having pink hair.

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Topics: Broadsheet, Love and Sex,

With apologies to my nephew Will, Amelia Robbins is my new favorite 12-year-old. The Missouri seventh grader was suspended from school as soon as it started this year because she’d dyed her hair pink over the summer — with her mother’s permission, and as a tribute to her late father, who died of cancer. (Reports don’t say whether he died of breast cancer, but if not, call it artistic license.) Administrators argue that the dye job is a “distraction” to other students, but with the full support of her mom, Amelia’s choosing to fight the suspension rather than adopt a more conventional hair color. “I don’t feel like I should have to, because i’m expressing myself as an individual. Because they constantly tell us be different, don’t follow the crowd.” Nice one, kiddo! It’s never too early to start calling out your superiors’ hypocrisy!

I’m probably so taken by Amelia’s story because I would have loved to dye my hair pink at 12, but my mother would have killed me — and had the funeral home bleach it back to blond for the wake. But I find her so utterly charming in this CNN video, where she comes off as somewhat dorky, very bright, trying a little too hard to sound grown-up, and totally unwilling to take B.S. from authority figures. Which is to say, she sounds like someone who will grow up to be a fine feminist blogger. Rock on with your pink hair and your fight against the powers that be, Amelia. And send us the link to your blog someday.

Kate Harding is the co-author of "Lessons From the Fatosphere: Quit Dieting and Declare a Truce With Your Body" and has been a regular contributor to Salon's Broadsheet. More Kate Harding.

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