Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz doesn’t just represent Florida’s 25th congressional district — she also represents women who wear their curly hair natural.
Ever since she was a 25-year-old running for the Florida State House, she has been told she should rethink her appearance because she didn’t look professional.
“Every older woman that I met with for advice counseled me that I have to do something about my hair,” Wasserman Schultz recalled on a recent episode of “We Are Spiraling,” a podcast by Priya Anand, a former reporter and founder of curly hair line Mayura.
“There has been so much pressure on me through my whole career,” Wasserman Schultz added. In 2012, Fox News anchors Greg Gutfeld and Kimberly Guilfoyle repeatedly called her “Frizzilla,” and her hair was described as “ramen noodle-like” and “out of control” in Adweek.
Wasserman Schultz, who was first elected to Congress in 2004, said she let a hairdresser convince her back then to straighten her hair — which she instantly regretted.
“People went berserk,” she said on Anand’s podcast. “They said, ‘Wow, you should wear your hair like that all the time. You look amazing.’”
They didn’t realize that “it was kind of an insult,” she added.
Now 59, the former chair of the Democratic National Committee, who is Jewish, says young girls pull her aside when she gives talks at Jewish organizations to thank her for wearing the hair she was born with.
“My curls have been a part of who I am at the most basic level for my entire life,” she said.
