Hey ,
As a curly-girl, seeing Keri Russell burst onto the scene as Felicity was a hair-affirming event like no other. I can't help but wonder what would have happened to my confidence if she had red hair, too... but I digress.
Keri was one of the first young, albeit white, actresses to be revered in Hollywood for her differences from conventional blonde or brunette standards. And while, yes, we did have Julia Roberts during the late 90s, late-teens-Jenna was not relating as hard to the movie Stepmom as she was to a girl graduating high school and embarking on life in the big city.
All the practicing curly-girls know that whether you choose to let your hair lead or follow is an act of utter dominance + surrender. We try product upon product, and sometimes even find one that is "it," only to be foiled by a drop in barometric pressure or rise in humidity. It's a grind.
Watching Keri burst back onto the scene in The Diplomat has been both exhilarating and challenging in the best ways. Here we have a Hollywood star who was (and is) known for her physical beauty, daring to age on screen through a noticeable lack of makeup and Botox.
But as season 3 crashes onto the airwaves like a pair of chaos-driven mourning doves into my bird feeder (that metaphor is for the weekly readers), there's a much richer story Keri's character, Kate, is sharing with us. Beyond the political drama, beyond aging naturally - it's the silent, catastrophic toll of allostatic load.