Noella Williams Is an Activist, an Anime Fan, and an Author (In That Order)
20.10.2022 - 14:55
/ glamour.com
By Noella Williams is a Pisces sun, Pisces Moon, and Libra rising—thanks for asking. Her hobbies include lounging around with her Animal Crossing–themed Nintendo Switch, talking about Loki, the fictional character played by Tom Hiddleston, who’s an “acquired thirst,” and yelling at old men who are trying to control women’s bodies.
Before our interview she admits she just rolled out of bed because she was up late night before dyeing her new dreadlocks a vibrant purple shade. If you knew her personally, you’d know it’s on brand for the 23-year-old Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU) graduate.
The Manic Panic hair dye and the button-down aloha shirts (what she jokingly refers to as her “bisexual uniform”) are all a part of Williams’s era of embracing her softness as a Black woman. It’s something she didn’t really pay much attention to until she began at FAMU as a transfer student in the fall of 2019.“I had to do a lot of unlearning for the expectations that were set for me by my parents or the world around me,” Williams says, alluding to the fact that Black women have always been policed for their voice, body, hair, and politics.
She shaved her head earlier this year to combat that—a decision her high school self would have gawked at. Throughout her adolescence, Williams went to a private Christian academy, where no one looked like her.
“I’ve had to unlearn what people expect a Black woman to be," she says.She grew up in Pensacola, Florida, a part of the state so northern it’s considered Southern—practically an extension of Alabama that sits right above Florida’s panhandle. For those familiar with the region, proudly proclaiming your status as a radical queer pro-Black organizer is unheard-of, but that’s
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