Little girl refuses to wear her bonnet until she sees herself on TV: 'She looks like me'

In an increasingly globalizing world, individuals need to be able to retain their sense of identity. While exposure to different cultures is great and should be encouraged, it always helps if one can be proud of their roots. This is why representation becomes even more important in the modern world. When people are given proper representation in various spheres of life, it gives them a better sense of belonging and identity. Nika Diwa—who goes by @nikadiwa on TikTok—shared a viral video showcasing how representation is important for small children as well.

The video has become quite popular on the social media platform, with 1.2 million likes and 2039 comments. The text overlay on her video reveals, "She refused to wear her bonnet until she saw this. This is why representation matters." We can see Diwa's daughter sitting in front of the TV wearing an adorable pink bonnet. She looks at the TV and sees cartoon characters that look like her, which leads her to happily exclaim, "Mom, it's like me!"

Her mom affirms her observation and the girl continues to look at the TV, feeling very happy that her cartoon has characters that look just like her. Even at such a young age, the little girl connects with the cartoon and begins dancing around when the characters begin singing. The heartwarming video concludes with the mom saying, "Super bonnet! Super bonnet!" People loved the video and wrote down their thoughts in the comments section. @trainamusic expressed, "As an indigenous woman and human, this warms my heart. You go, little queen."

Last year, Elaine Shen—who goes by @elaineshen_ on X (previously Twitter)—a marine biologist who worked on fisheries ecology and environmental DNA, received an adorable email from a third grader asking if they could interview her for a school project. The woman was so overcome with emotions that she shed happy tears after reading the email. Shen shared a screenshot of the email, revealing that the student got in touch with her because they were working on a big biography project and was also an Asian American.

The post is captioned, "I don't care if it's lame, I immediately started crying when I got this email #RepresentationMatters." The third-grader stated in the email that they had found Shen's profile after doing a bit of online research. After a brief introduction, the student asked if they could interview her over a Zoom call to learn more about her story and how she became a marine biologist. The cute email concludes with the third grader writing, "I am copying my teacher in this email. I hope you will say yes and I look forward to hearing back from you. Thank you and I hope you have a good weekend."

Shen was quick to agree to the student's request, sharing that she said yes very fast, in a reply to her post. The wholesome post got the attention of many users and they shared their thoughts in the comments section. @CarlaKeith19 said, "You're a hero. My daughter had a female pediatrician, and one summer, we saw a male doctor who was covering for her. As we walked out, my daughter said, 'I didn't know boys could be doctors too.' Many of that pediatrician's girl patients became daughters, my daughter included."