Leticia & a Praia do  Leme 

I don’t know anyone else who loves Rio de Janeiro the way she does—born and raised na Cidade Maravilhosa.

Essa Lindíssima carioca was in the process of transitioning back to her natural hair.

Who is Leticia? She is the kind of friend you can always count on. She is the kind of person people might think is too nice. She is so soft and well-educated. I feel inspired by this friendship. We are friends because we genuinely like each other—not for any other reason. So often, I have encountered this energy of social pressure to know more and more people, always looking for something. We sometimes forget in our twenties to look for friends that also calm our nervous system down.


I’m so glad to portrait Leticia—a friend simply because we love to hang out, share a mate, under a sun umbrella na Praia.






We met through a friend three years ago. She always waits for my return—pra minha terra. She connects people. With her, I learned to relax at the beach. I’m someone who always needs to do something, so chilling at Leme or Ipanema was never my favorite thing. I would get frustrated with the crowds and the heat. I always preferred walking through the Tijuca Forest to a waterfall, refreshing myself in nature. But Leticia taught me the art of simply being at Leme.

From the moment we met, I was already enchanted by her energy and beauty. Back then, she had straight, long hair. One of our topics was our Blackness and mixed background—'Parda,' as we say in Brazil. We grew up with very different perspectives on this topic, and now we are finding common ground in how to navigate it.


This beautiful carioca was in the process of transitioning back to her natural hair. Since we’ve known each other, we’ve talked about everything, but one recurring topic has been being parda, colorism in our families, and how we navigate the privileges and oppressions that come with this identity.


She grew up straightening her hair—for so many reasons: less work, more acceptance. The famous chemical straightening. I have many Brazilian friends who did the same. As a child, I remember my Brazilian-European friends always bringing these products from Brazil. I even thought about using them myself sometimes.





In the last two years, our conversations about hair became an active process! We embraced it more! She told me she would start braiding her hair so she could let the straightened parts grow out. She had so many amazing styles!



And today, for the first time, she woke up with a curly afro crown on top of her beautiful head!

After all the braids, all the transitions, there we were—sitting at the beach, talking about everything. We saw a girl with long, curly hair, and she said, That’s how I want mine to grow.

 


It was a beautiful moment. A transformation she had gone through, and I had witnessed over the years. To accept and love being part of this rich Black culture we were born into, and to add the luck of being Brazilians, sharing these moments in Rio de Janeiro! Sometimes, with her and Thais, I feel like we are a tropical POC version of Sex and the City. This mad city, but we have each other!



She was wearing Coisa Linda, the ring that focuses on beauty. A girl once told me she looks through the fist of her hand to focus on the beauty in life. Kind of this sticket in my head.





Leticia is a strong, talented soul. I’m grateful to have her as a friend. And I hope that one day, as grandmothers, we’ll still be sitting at Leme or Ipanema, talking about our lives and looking back at those photos of her first day waking up with her natural curls.