It’s the last day of February which marks another successful Black History Month under our belt. This year, the most important takeaway was the representation in media for our next generation by giving our unspoken heroes the shine they so badly deserve. 

Cristi Jones of Kent, Washington, and her 5-year-old daughter, Lola, decided to add their own personal twist to Black History Month and it’s the cutest thing ever. For each day of February, Jones dressed up Lola as a black female pioneer and shared the empowering portraits on her social media accounts. The idea came about when Lola came home from school, sharing what she learned about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The family decided it was time to educate Lola about Civil Rights and slavery but in a fun way that could also be a learning experience for her 19-month-old sister, Eden, as she gets older. 

“Black History Month is already a short month. We only have 28 days to work with. There’s so many more women that deserve to be honored.” Jones told NBC. 

Lola has transformed into Rosa Parks, Misty Copeland, Josephine Baker and Harriet Tubman, among many other, with the help of Jones’ cell phone and creative eye. Family friend/professional photographer contributed to the project by shooting a few photos to give Jones a break. It took a little searching and borrowing from family members to get the costumes right for these historical photos but thankfully that was the hardest part. Lola showed up and did her part in the most professional manner.

"She does very good faces. She does the face she sees in the picture,” shared Jones. "As soon as she got dressed (as Harriet Tubman), she did the face and nailed it.”

Extremely proud of her work, Lola took the portraits to school so her friends could learn about these amazing women as well. Lola shared with NBC that her favorite image is Rosa Parks because she was “so brave,” she enjoyed becoming Misty Copeland because she felt pretty like a ballerina.

"You can be anything you want and you can change your mind — or be a scientist and physician and astronaut like Dr. Jemison,” said Lola.

Cristi Jones created this photo project as an “engaging way to learn about strong women who paved the way for little girls like her, for all of us.” Check out Cristi's Twitter page to see the rest of Lola's stunning photos. Job well done, mama!

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