You Should See Me in a Crown

Liz’s hair is an important symbol that appears numerous times in the text. It is almost a metonymy, a part of Liz that stands for her as a whole. At the beginning of the novel, Liz strives to control her hair; it is a reflection of her comfort with herself. She begins “wearing my hair slicked back in a tight bun nearly every day. Switched from bright colors to quieter tones so no one would spot me coming” (42). By taming her “defiant” hair and forcing it in line, Liz exerts control over herself and her image (18). Though Liz cannot become like the other students at Campbell, like former prom queen Eden Chandler, she constantly compares herself to them and finds herself less than. She sees her hair as “all defiance where hers is tradition,” and to cope with feeling like an outsider, she slicks her hair back and tries her best not to be seen at all (18). Jordan’s rebuffing of Liz in freshman year of high school is the catalyst for Liz’s insecurity. This moment is also intimately tied in with Liz’s hair. On that day, “My hair was in its full form, big and curly, and fell into my face” as she went up to Jordan (42).