Self-Made Critique

Pictured: Annie Turnbo Malone
Annie Malone Historical Society / Missouri History Museum

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The new Netflix series, “self made” is inspired by the hair growing invention made by both Annie Malone and Madam CJ Walker. Annie Malone was the daughter of slaves in Illinois and was born in 1869. Later in life Malone became fascinated with chemistry in high school – she later dropped out of high school due to illness, but continued to experiment with chemistry. One of her older relatives was an herb doctor and they would gather herbs together to create products. In her experiments she found a solution that helped hair to grow and also to grow much straighter without damaging the scalp. Malone decided to move to St. Louis in 1902 to finally capitalize on her product, called the “Wonderful Hair Grower” later named “Poro” at the world market. Malone became successful in St. Louis and even opened up a store and a beauty school. Malone’s beauty school was the first ever to specialize in black hair. When women graduated from this school, they began to open up their own shops, thus helping black women during that time advance themselves. Poro College expanded and there were 32 colleges around the US and employed around 75,000 agents globally. Malone was also a millionaire who’s net worth was around $14 million. Her wealth was squandered after her divorce when her husband decided to take half of everything. Madam CJ Walker was a protégé of Annie Malone and sold the product under her own name. Both Annie Malone and Madam CJ Walker went on to start colleges that gave other black women opportunities for their futures, and both were extremely successful businesswomen for their time, especially given their obstacles. Their legacy lives on, and it is important to appreciate the struggles of black women in US history and also celebrate their accomplishments. Although there were some flaws with the series, such as pitting the two women against each other (more than necessary) but also making Annie a mixed black woman when she was not, which further exploited a stereotype of light and darker skinned black women feuding over which is better. Despite this, I think that the primary message from the series was about women in business supporting one another. We have to lift each other up and mentor one another in order to succeed. If one of us succeeds, we should support her, and given her resources she should support her fellow sisters through professional mentorship and education.