Braids, young and old

Wednesday was something of a blur, with our Children's Librarians' Information Meeting in the morning and the Children's Services Advisory Board meeting in the afternoon, and not quite enough time to go through all my emails and eat lunch in between.

Luckily, one of the children's librarians gave me a shot of happy energy early in the day by remarking that I had a "Katniss braid." I did?? I've been continuing to grow it ever longer, and so that it doesn't look entirely disreputable, I've been wrestling it into one braid that hangs down between my shoulder braids.

I didn't ever think about the fact that Katniss has a braid! But sure enough, she does, and it's depicted in much fanart.
Katniss Studies Take 4 by ~Ratgirlstudios on deviantART
And now that I think about it, Beka Cooper has a braid as well, a good long thick one. So that miscreants can't grab her by it, Beka braids a spiked cord into her hair - ouch!
Beka Cooper by ~themoe on deviantART
I can't remember if she is described in the book as having a braid, but in the movie version of Howl's Moving Castle, Sophie has one both as a teen and as an old woman.
That horror Sophie feels as she look at herself is not unknown to me, although I have a few decades to go before I look THAT old. (Sometimes, though, when I look in the mirror when the sun is shining through the windows in a particularly pitiless way, I gasp "Llama Face!" a la Emperor Kuzco.)


One thing for sure, I'm no Katniss or Beka. The thing is, I realize that only when I look in the mirror. Like most folks, I feel ageless inside, and perhaps those of us who read children's and young adult fiction feel even more ageless than most. After all, we inhabit the thoughts, hearts, and minds of young folks on a regular basis. That Katniss is almost 30 years younger than me matters not a bit while I'm reading Mockingjay.

Though I felt compelled to make derogatory remarks about my graying braid to that children's librarian, inside I was thinking "YES!" And I walked around all day with an extra bounce to my step, feeling like a young warrior as my braid swished powerfully behind me.