Where you come from, what you look like, and what your past holds do not define you as an individual--you are what you make yourself to be.

To me, the haircut represented beauty and strength, that I was a woman who would live her life without the boundaries imposed upon her by other people.

What's truly important--and what I find myself forgetting and having to relearn--is that right here, right now, I am free. Free to be myself and to express myself.

But true individuality is more about being in tune with who you truly are, whether you're expressing yourself physically, mentally, or spiritually; individuality arises from living without fear of what other might think or say about you and without being swayed by their opinions, leaving you free to lead life without caring about judgments made by the outside world.