Blue Ivy Carter has followed in her parent’s footsteps when it comes to being recognized for her musical talents. She won the “Best Voiceover of a Children’s Audiobook” award during the 2021 Voice Arts Awards.
The ceremony took place at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City, celebrating the best of voice acting and media production. The 9-year-old won the award for her narration of Hair Love, written by Matthew A. Cherry, Girls United reported.
Hair Love was initially created as a short film, winning an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 2020. The story is about a little girl named Zuri, who asks her father to style her curly hair. While the father never styled his daughter’s hair, he ultimately succeeded after watching online tutorials to make his daughter look and feel special.
Matthew A. Cherry produced this story to increase the representation of Black families in animation. “Upon Hair Love’s early success, my hope was that the film would increase Black representation in mainstream animation, but I had no idea of the extent it would increase representation in media and culture as a whole,” he previously told Essence Magazine.
Cherry also wanted the story to encourage Black fathers and build the self-esteem of Black children by portraying every day yet underrepresented life situation. “I wanted to see a young black family in the animated world,” he told the New York Times. “Black fathers get one of the worst raps in terms of stereotypes — we’re deadbeats, we’re not around,” Cherry added. “The people I know are extremely involved in their kids’ lives.”
Though this isn’t Carter’s first time winning a significant award, she also won a Grammy for “Best Music Video” for “Brown Skin Girl” in March of this year. After winning the award, she was declared the second-youngest Grammy-winner ever. She’s also won an MTV Video Music Award, two Soul Train Music Awards, two NAACP Image Awards, and a BET Her Award, all for her contributions to “Brown Skin Girl,” Girls United reported.
