The New York Times Best Seller Hair Love, by Matthew Cherry, is making it’s Spanish debut May 21, Amor de Pelo. The book is the basis of the Academy Award winning short of the same name.
Hair Love hit bookshelves in May 2019 and became an instant hit. Cherry, creator behind the book, director and producer, says that the “story was born out of seeing a lack of representation in mainstream animated projects, and also wanting to promote hair love amongst young men and women of color.”
The popular picture book got its start when Cherry created a Kickstarter in 2017 to get funding for the original idea for the short film. In less than 2 days, the campaign had over $30,000 in donations. The project kept developing and growing, topping out at $284,000 in funding. Two years later, the first prints hit bookstores everywhere and quickly shot the book to the New York Times best seller list.
The book was then developed into the animated short Cherry had initially pitched on Kickstarter and in February, the animated short film won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. And the story’s popularity keeps growing because just last month, Blue Ivy Carter, Beyonce and Jay-Z’s eldest daughter, lent her voice to the audiobook version.
Cherry, who is also a producer for MonkeyPaw Productions, Jordan Peele’s production company, said that he hoped to “show a positive image of black fathers and their daughters, while encouraging natural hair and self-love throughout the world through the animated space.”
And now that love will be felt in Spanish as wel.