Pantene has released an ad celebrating the relationship between a transgender girl and her lesbian moms.
In the two-minute commercial, Sawyer, a transgender girl, and her two moms, Ashley and Ellie, celebrate their family motto, “Everybody loves everybody, no matter what path you follow.”
The family dynamic between Sawyer and her proud moms is the core of the ad, which is one of a number of recent ads aimed at providing positive representation of the LGBTQ community.
Sawyer’s mom Ashley also talks about the importance of her daughter’s hair to her transition.
“Once she told us that she identified as a girl, she immediately wanted to grow her hair out,” she says in the ad.
“I remember the first time she was out in the community wearing the clothing she wanted and her hair,” Ashley continues. “And she kind of was herself. And that was the first day where I saw her.”
Pantene prefaced the ad with a heartfelt message posted to Twitter, writing, “Hair is a large part of our identity. And for LGBTQ+ youth like Sawyer, who choose to express themselves, their style, and their creativity through their hair style, it can help them feel seen.”
Hair is a large part of our identity. And for LGBTQ+ youth like Sawyer, who choose to express themselves, their style, & their creativity through their hair style, it can help them feel seen.
Catch up with Sawyer and her mom Ashley & see how this family is #BeautifulLGBTQ 🌈💞 pic.twitter.com/GVjndXTqVN
— Pantene Pro-V (@Pantene) March 15, 2021
Growing her hair out made Sawyer “feel good and confident, and it made my insides match my outsides.”
In spite of the ad’s inspiring message, it was met with a significant amount of transphobic hate from Twitter users.
Many hurtful comments were aimed directly at the family featured in the ad, which led Pantene to condemn the transphobic messages and issue a further statement of support for the LGBTQ community.
“Transphobia has no place in our world or on our feed,” they wrote.
Transphobia has no place in our world or on our feed. 🏳️⚧️
In response to the bullying & harassment directed at those featured in the video of our last post: We stand with this #BeautifuLGBTQ family & the entire community 🌈💖
— Pantene Pro-V (@Pantene) March 19, 2021
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