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PANTENE Holiday Ads

Source: PANTENE / Pantene, Proctor & Gamble

Puma and Lauren London’s recent ad isn’t the only one bringing us to tears.

Pantene, in a partnership with GLAAD, recently launched a touching video series of transgender people discussing their gender identity and how that has impacted them coming home from the holidays.

Trust: It gave us all the feels!

“137 million Americans will travel home this holiday season. Forty-four percent of LGBTQ people feel they can’t come home as their true selves,” the hair brand video reads as members of the Trans Chorus of Los Angeles sing “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.”

Chills, watch below:

One of these transgender people featured is Miliana S.  In an accompanying video opens us about how growing her hair long was her source of feminity, an act that enraged her father.

“For me, my hair was like my strength, my femininity. It was my character,” she says. “My dad was not a fan of me growing my hair out. He ended up shaving my head bald and that was a very tough time for me — to lose something that meant the world to me in an instant.”

Five years later, Miliana says, her father embraces her and now that past anxiety she used to feel around him into comfort and love.

“Now, to go home for the holidays means that I have a sense of community and family. It’s just an amazing feeling of comfort to be back. I just feel like that’s where my heart is.”

Take a look:

Another follow-up spot features MJ of Pomona, Calif., discussing the importance of having a chosen family in the wake of being rejected by their blood relatives.

“Going home for the holidays is a hard question, but I have so many brothers and sisters and siblings. I have a huge family,” MJ says.

“The importance of finding chosen family, I think is key in the trans community. My chosen family is important because they saved my life. My chosen family are the ones who helped me when I was homeless.”

“Home is not just where I lay my head. It’s the people around me. The people who support me, and the people who love me unconditionally,” they continue.

Take a look:

As I’ve written before, it’s no secret that we live in a transphobic world that has tried to push trans women into the shadows and use violence and discrimination to deny them the right to exist and their womanhood. That’s got to change.

And no, these Pantene ads alone will not eradicate that oppression, but as more affirming representation like this campaign becomes the norm, the more transgender women can come into the light, be celebrated for the women they are and help raise awareness around the issues that they face.

Like Pose’s Mj Rodriquez’s Oil of Olay partnership, these types of ads that center on Black trans women and gender non-conforming folks matter, because visibility is the answer. And remember: Like Black cisgender women in America, Black trans women are also beautiful, crucial to our community and contribute daily to our collective liberation.

So Bravo Pantene! We wonder which beauty brand got’s next?

These Pantene ‘Going Home For The Holidays’ Ads Featuring Black Trans Women Gave Us All The Feels!  was originally published on hellobeautiful.com