#Firsthashtag ClassStuff

[my-class-stuff]

#BlackGirlMagic

#BlackGirlMagic was popularized by CaShawn Thomson half way through 2013. The hashtag was shorthand for the ideal of celebrating the ‘beauty, power and resilience of black woman’. The hashtag was spawned after a Detroit school teacher objected to the idea that black women had to fit the ‘beauty ideal’ of society in order to gain the attention that their white companions were able to attain without such intrinsic gifts. While the ideal presented by the hashtag #BlackGirlMagic (Shortened from #BlackGirlsAreMagic) was meant to have a positive impact on black women, there are those that refuse to accept its message. Two years after this hashtag was created there was an incident where mainstream news outlets attacked black Oscar-nominated actress Viola Davis and Serena Williams over the fact that they did not fit the ‘classic and ideal’ images of beauty and femininity. These attacks often extended beyond just celebrities and public figures. Michelle Obama was quite frank with her speech at the “Black Girls Rock!” awards in march of 2015. Obama claimed that young black girls often heard “voices that tell you you’re not good enough, that you have to look a certain way; that if you speak up, you’re too loud; if you step up to lead, you’re being bossy.” She stresses that by claiming that there is something inherently ‘good’ about those young children being who they are and giving them something positive to identify with serves a very valuable purpose. Thompson claims that she uses the word ‘magic’ because it alludes to something that people don’t always understand. She claims that people may perceive black women's achievements to come out of thin air, as if by magic, rather than understanding that they came from the same hard work and perseverance as all others. 

In 2014 Thompson created a website to sell shirts to her friends. She then posted the shirt to her twitter account. Thompson has since sold over three thousand of these shirts. These shirts have been worn by many celebrities on social media. This movement is referenced often in pop culture and has taken on a positive life of its own.