Tiawana Brown founded North Carolina–based nonprofit Beauty After The Bars after serving four years in prison because of how important beauty is for many incarcerated women.
“Allowing Women to use beauty as an expression restores dignity and humanity,” she told BuzzFeed News in an email. “Many on the outside looking in view make up as a luxury or privilege. It is a simple thing that makes us feel good.”
Once when Lindquist picked a woman up on the day of her release, she asked to stop at a drugstore. “She came out with fake lashes,” Lindquist said. “I can’t remember if I gave her a lecture about it. But the truth is, when you have felt demeaned and dehumanized for years, lashes can make you feel like a whole new person.”
Brown told BuzzFeed News that fear is a theme for many women — fear of leaving prison, the changes in the outside world, failure to reunite with family and society. Makeup is often a means of feeling connected again.
“We are not inmates, we are not convicts, we are not numbers,” she said. “We are Mothers, Grandmothers, daughters, Aunts, Wives, cousins and friends. Let us be free to express our beauty.”
Source: https://www.buzzfeed.com/stefficao/prison-makeup-mm-eyeshadow-tiktok
