When my youngest daughter was four, she embarked on an ancient preschool rite of passage enjoyed by young women around the world (their moms, not so much): She hacked off her own hair.
Not all of it, of course; just a major chunk right in the front, where bangs would be if you were her mother and wanted her to have them (which you didn't, for the record). Long, wispy, side-swept bangs they were not. They ranged from a half inch to an inch long -- because of course they weren't straight; the kid was four, after all. She wasn't even good at cutting paper yet.
After the shock and horror wore off (oh, who am I kidding? They never wore off), the only thing we could do was wait for the hair to grow back. Well, that and hide all of the scissors and invest in a bunch of fat, stretchy headbands to contain the mess should photographing her be necessary at any point.
I flashed back to that day today when I saw a photo on People's Mom & Babies of Suri Cruise sporting what can only be a Bangs-By-Me job. Like my daughter's was, Suri's fringe is choppy and uneven and looks entirely out of place framing her otherwise flowing mane. (Picture Anne Hathaway's wispy pixie bangs pasted to Megan Fox's forehead and you get the idea.)
Maybe little Suri was stressed out about all the hoopla over her mom Katie Holmes posing topless for Allure. She could have been trying out a new hairstyle after seeing Seraphina Affleck's new bob last week. Or maybe she's just a normal kid after all. Either way, she's still pretty damned cute -- bad bang days and all.
Jenna McCarthy is an internationally published writer, TED speaker and the author of five books including If It Was Easy They'd Call the Whole Damn Thing a Honeymoon: Living with and Loving the TV-Addicted, Sex-Obsessed, Not-so-handy Man You Married (Berkley Books, 2011). Find her at JennaMcCarthy.com.
