Virginia Mellen ’12 shaved her head to show her 15-month-old son that there is no one specific ...Virginia Mellen ’12 shaved her head to show her 15-month-old son that there is no one specific way for a woman to look.
As a mother of a 6-month old boy, discussions on gender stereotypes are the furthest thing from my mind. It’s one thing to talk to adults about the topic at a dinner party, but talking to a child about it is very scary. It’s a topic you want to get right—the first time. Virginia Mellen, a 27-year-old woman who lives in Maine with her husband and 15-month-old son decided to broach the topic early and show her child that there’s no particular way a woman is supposed to look.

To do this, Mellen gave herself a buzz cut and posted the photo to the Facebook group Pantsuit Nation. Mellen told Yahoo Beauty “the first time I shaved my head I was 17, and I just wanted to try something new. I didn’t think very much about how people would react, or what shaving my head might symbolize to others.” But this time around was much, much different. Now a mother and wife, Mellen was slightly concerned that others would incorrectly think she was shaving it for a political reason or think she had a mental breakdown. But Mellen couldn’t have been further from the truth. The photo received more than 45,000 reactions and 2,500 comments since Sunday. This mom shaved her head and seriously won the best mom of the year award.

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