Brown haired white kids never in photos

[StevieChicks]

Just that really.
Seen the new school prospectus. Beautiful blond children everywhere, front cover and throughout, a few mixed race children, fewer black and Asian students (because racism) but without a doubt the least photographed children are kids like mine. Children with naturally brown, mousey or dark brown hair.
It's not the same as racism and I would not for a second think that this trivial matter is in any way similar to other discourses around representation. And maybe I have a chip on my shoulder from the eighties when I was never a Disney princess and had to be the evil witch. It doesn't feel like much has changed.
My son's hair is thick and dark brown/ black. He has very pale skin. I just don't see this as the desired aesthetic. The world still goes mad for blonde children.

#firstworldproblems

In my experience the confident, middle class kids get the main roles in the plays in primary- in DDs primary it tended to be 2 white kids, one with brown hair, one with red hair

The kids who get photographed in my children's (very mixed race) school are the ones who can behave for the photo shoots lol. So it's all a good mix of students used, just the ones who behave! You're sore over nothing. Who cares.

My sister has three blonde daughters. The eldest one, now 8 is losing her blondness and becoming much darker. My sister is really upset about it. I, who am brunette, challenged her on this but she couldn't really articulate why she felt like this. I do think blondeness is favoured in kids, especially girls.

@Disasterclass I was Mary because she didn't have any lines.
I didn't speak much back then 😂
(It was Carnival of the Animals so Mary was just watching the animals perform)

@40andlovelife because we live in a very diverse area in an inner city. Choosing five blonde kids to go on the front of the brochure is a bit weird.

No I agree. It’s always the children with unique features who appear as the ‘chosen’ children for the school. They choose children of other races to show they’re diverse and the children with disabilities to show they’re inclusive. A boy in my son’s class has a large birth mark on his face and he’s the child that is the poster child each year for the class/school. My son is pretty ordinary (in terms of features and standing out appearance wise) so he never appears on the newsletters let alone the website etc.

I'm blonde I was always an angel in the school plays but my tiny sized brown haired girls was horrified when she was picked to be an elf in her school play 😂🤣😂

Can't say I've ever noticed or felt the need to pay attention to that

@orangeleopard I think that's what it is with my son. He is just very ordinary looking.

Kindly, I think that the chip on your shoulder that you mentioned is speaking here.

It’s a sad fact of life that pretty babies, children, teens and adults get photographed more / produce better photos than ordinary looking ones.
I don’t think it has anything to do with hair colour, unless whoever chose the photos for your prospectus was biased towards blondes. But I don’t think it’s a general thing.

There's enough people on here saying they know what I mean. I don't think it's in my head. In the same way that 8-11 year old boys aren't praised or cooed over or even acknowledged.

Is this a private school?

YABU. White with brown hair has to be the least discriminated-against demographic there is.

I'm not very invested in this but I am genuinely curious - when do you think White Blondes have been discriminated against?

Can’t speak for photos, but DD 2.5 has very blonde curly hair and we get lots of comments about it from strangers when out and about. MIL has said she’s relieved DD is blonde as she was worried she was going to be dark haired like I am…thanks MIL. I’m just totally bemused by it all!

Most blonde girls will tell you they get very sick of being assumed to be thick.

The most typical hair colour for kids of British heritage is blonde, which comes in lots of shades, running from very light to dark, with and without reddish tones. Many will become much darker haired as they age. Not that unusual to see people who were light blonde infants end up with extremely dark hair in adulthood!
And gently OP, did you realise that you yourself described the blonde children in particular as 'beautiful'?
Only a few of the Disney princess are blonde, and two of them: Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty were created way back in the 1950s.

@Biffbaff I did not say discriminated against. Ignored maybe.

I, on the other hand, was blonde as a child and always played the sodding Angel Gabriel in a white nightie and a tinsel halo.

I was desperate to be Mary, but she always went to the dark haired girls. 😂

In phrases like "having a blonde moment" and in blonde jokes where the punchline is that blondes are stupid.

Yes I noticed that in the 1980s.

Also that cats were always the bad guys, dogs good.

I really wanted blonde hair. I have been blonde as an adult but am back to natural hazelnut now, with grey streaks, and my hair is in much better condition. It's quite hard to have shiny long blonde hair.

Re Disney princesses, I was delighted when Belle showed up! 😆 Snow White is much darker than me.

If this is your only worry in life, then your life is good.

We don't have prospectus but, for research purposes, I just opened the home page of our school website which has four rolling pages of photos as follows:

Page 1 - 7 brown haired white children, 1 Asian child with brown/black hair, and 1 blond haired white child (in the distance).

Page 2 - 1 white blonde child, one black child and one Asian child.

Page 3 - 5 brown haired white children, 1 Asian child and 1 blonde white child.

Page 4 - 7 brown haired white children, 1 blond child and a photo taken from the back all with hats on where you can't really tell but looks like 4 brown haired children and 1 light brown possibly blonde child.

Seems that the brown haired kids are very well represented in our school.