In the video for Kelly Rowland’s new song Crown, teenage girls share the times when they were bullied, taunted and put down because of the way they looked.

“I was expelled from school for having braided hair extensions,” one girls says. Another’s hair was called “pigeon’s nest” and “rat’s nest”. “It really impacted how people saw me,” one child explained.

Rowland’s song Crown is a joyful, empowering ode to loving yourself and your hair. “I wear my crown, my hair, my crown,” Rowland sings. “It don’t matter how I wear it. It’s beautiful in every colour.”

According to the singer, the song is for every girl struggling to accept themselves and their hair, no matter the colour or the style. It’s a song for every teenager who has ever felt that they weren’t beautiful. And it’s a song that Rowland wishes she could have listened to when she was a young woman who felt that she never saw herself reflected in pop culture. 

“What a smart young lady you are,” Rowland wrote in a message to herself on her Instagram. 

“You were born a Queen! And even though the world doesn’t show you enough beautiful images of yourself, you are one of a kind, and don’t let anyone tell you different.”

Rowland added: “I know you don’t hear it much how ‘beautiful your hair is’, your unique and various textures and colours that make you unique and special. Just know, no one wears your crown like you baby girl. And you don’t have to look like anyone else.” 

Speaking to Hello Giggles, Rowland said that if she could give her younger self one piece of advice, it would be to have courage in your convictions.

“Don’t listen to people telling you what you should do and how you should look. You are the captain of your own ship,” Rowland says. “The greatest lesson I’ve learned is about self-doubt. It isn’t our own. It is other people’s fears and insecurities put on to us. It was never ours to begin with.”

Rowland hopes that all young women and girls listen to the song and feel empowered and uplifted.

“I remember when I was a little girl I used to look at the TV and magazines and never saw someone who looked like me or had hair like me, which made me doubt my own beauty,” Rowland said. “Our hope is to use this song as an anthem for girls everywhere to feel confident in how they choose to wear their hair and dismantle the narrow depiction of what it means to have beautiful hair.” 

Images: Getty