There is a particular kind of pressure Black women grow up with that doesn’t get talked about nearly enough: the unspoken rule that we must always look put together. Not just cute. Not just presentable. Put together in a way that signals respectability, competence, and “don’t play with me.” We learn early that how we look is never neutral. Our hair, our makeup, our clothes, our posture; all of it gets read, interpreted, and judged before we ever open our mouths. So somewhere