Black woman engineer, Fionnghuala “Fig” O’Reilly, has been making it a point to wear braids in the science lab, saying, “representation is so impactful for the next generation.”
According to Yahoo Life, O’Reilly shared a photo of herself via Twitter, wearing long cornrows while working in a lab.
“As a black woman on a national science show, I intentionally wear braids and my curly Afro to normalize black hair in STEM,” she tweeted along with a crystal clear picture on Dec. 5.
As a black woman on a national science show, I intentionally wear braids and my curly Afro to normalize black hair in stem. In this pic, I’m wearing cornrows to study plants being sent to space at NASA. pic.twitter.com/n2a2iFcSlw
— Fig (@figoreilly) December 5, 2022
“In this pic, I’m wearing cornrows to study plants being sent to space at NASA.”
The 29-year-old, born to an American mother and Irish father, was the first Black woman to represent Ireland in the 2019 Miss Universe competition. She’s reportedly the only Black woman in her class to graduate with a systems engineering degree and, as such, has been advocating the mentorship of Black women pursuing STEM careers.
“When doors open for you, it’s important to hold doors open for others,” she told Yahoo Life.
O’Reilly continued, saying that she believes “representation is so impactful for the next generation.”
“Representation is so impactful for the next generation, and I intentionally do make the effort to show up [as] myself in these spaces where we’re not often seen at all,” she wrote.
Following her post, many women voiced how happy they were to see the young woman being herself in a white-dominated space.
“Mom of an adopted 8 year old black girl. I’m showing this to her! She gets so excited to see girls who “look like me” doing science and cool things. Thank you for posting!!,” one user wrote.
“Honestly, this reason is what pushed me over the edge and made me decide to wear my natural hair at work. If people have an issue with it, that’s on them. I’m just here to be me and do my job (and in the process, to normalize my ability to exist as me in these spaces),” another said.
O’Reilly is also a correspondent on CBS’s Mission Unstoppable with Miranda Cosgrove, a show that spotlights women in various STEM positions.
