Courtesy of Kindergachy.

I don‰’t think a lot of people understand just how important positive representation is, especially for young women of color. I‰’m going to focus on representation in music because that‰’s what I know and love.

Imagine 15-year-old me sitting in bed on top of my Hello Kitty sheets after a long day of school. Someone had just told me to go back to my country, another person had asked me not to drop a bomb on them, and I had a really hard math test. My hijab lay discarded on the floor, immediately taken off as soon as I got home. I tried to do homework but instead I looked for new music. One thing led to another and suddenly I was listening to “Deeper Conversation‰” and looking up a new singer.

The first picture of Yuna shocked me. She was wearing a colorful hijab and her style was just so cool and effortless. She was smiling, holding a guitar, and living it up on stage.

It was groundbreaking. I‰’d never dreamed that a hijab-wearing young woman from Southeast Asia could ever be in music. All I‰’d ever seen on TV and even on ‰indie‰’ websites were white faces with a few exceptional black and brown faces thrown in to fill some quota. But even then, those brown and black musicians always seemed to be confined and constricted into a genre whereas white musicians seemed to be able to go anywhere: pop, rap, R&B, rock, you name it and there would be more than one white musician in that genre.

But a Malaysian Muslim hijabi making indie pop music? I didn‰’t think it was possible.

My dream of being involved in music didn‰’t seem so distant anymore. I knew I could sing but I didn‰’t think anyone would want to listen to me. They‰’d probably take one look at my hijab and say “No way!‰Û

But if Yuna could do it, then why couldn‰’t I? So I tried out for the school musical and‰Û_I got in.

“Stop making this about race!‰” some of you may shout and yeah, I used to be like that too. I used to think that being “color-blind‰” was a good thing and that as long as people didn‰’t see race, we could all get along.

But race does matter and people see it whether they claim to be color-blind or not. Race matters because Gwen Stefani wearing a bindi is seen as fashionable but an Indian Hindu woman who is wearing it for religious purposes is seen as unable to assimilate. Race matters because Lady Gaga wearing a burqa is edgy but an Arab Muslim woman wearing it is seen as oppressed. Race matters because Miley Cyrus twerking is fun and quirky but a black woman doing that same dance is seen as uncultured and vulgar.

If I hadn‰’t learned about Yuna, I would‰’ve thought it was impossible for me to sing outside of my shower. I‰’d been involved in musical theater before I started wearing the hijab, but I stopped because I didn‰’t think anyone would want to see a hijabi on stage. However, seeing Yuna perform so confidently on stage gave me the confidence that I could do anything and that my hijab didn‰’t stop that.

If I hadn‰’t stumbled upon Yuna‰’s music, I wouldn‰’t have had the drive to find other women of color in music because I would‰’ve thought that hey, maybe there really isn‰’t someone like me out there making music.

But there is. She‰’s still making great music and I bet she has inspired another young Muslim girl to be involved in music, just like she inspired me.

(Note: The title of this post is from M.I.A.‰’s “Boom Skit‰Û.)