In 2018, 11-year-old Faith Fennidy left the classroom at Christ the King Middle School, in Terrytown, in tears after school officials told her that her braids violated school policy. The viral video of her in tears was recorded by her brother, Steven Fennidy.

After garnering national attention and outrage over the school’s rule, the school later rescinded its policy following the backlash from this incident.

Recalling that horrible experience three years later, Fennidy said, “When I went to school that day, and they told me that I couldn’t wear my braids there, it was a heartbreaking experience. Especially something that I had never expected from a school that I had been going to for at least a couple of years … to tell me that it was an issue, it was a problem.”

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Now, the 14-year-old found out she’s the inspiration behind Mickey Guyton’s song, “Love My Hair,” and she even got to introduce Guyton before she performed the song at the 2021 Country Music Association (CMA) Awards.

“I started crying when I found out,” Faith recalled. “I got to meet her [Mickey Guyton], and it was honestly an amazing experience. I’m so grateful that I got to be a part of that opportunity.”

Fennidy has since enrolled in a new school that she’s grown to love. She also decided to turn her painful experience into an opportunity to advocate for her home state of Louisiana to pass the CROWN Act. This legislation prohibits discrimination based on hairstyle and hair texture by extending protection for both categories under the Fair Employment and Housing Act and the Education Code.

The law has been passed in 14 states: California, New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Colorado, Washington, Maryland, Connecticut, Delaware, New Mexico, Nebraska, Nevada, Oregon and Illinois. Sen. Cory Booker and former Rep. Cedric Richmond, a Democrat who represented Louisiana’s 2nd District and is now a senior adviser to President Joe Biden, introduced the bill on a federal level.