I have many nick-names spanning from the expected (Neen, Neenz, Nini), sentimental (baby, baby girl, sweet girl) to slightly random without a back story. One of the more random nick-names came from my girl, Kishma, who went through a stage of calling me "Pretty Pants".
Here’s the back story to where that came from:
If you've been following me on social media for a while, or know me in real life, then you'll know that this British-born Nigerian girl loves patterned clothes. In case you haven't or don't, the pic above should prove my point. (Aside from African prints, I'm also partial to florals, animal prints and bright colours).
About 6 years ago, before my hair was locked, I was walking around Wood Green (a cosmopolitan shopping part of London) wearing trousers that had a black background and were embellished with bright, colourful flowers.
Long story short...
As I shuffled through the crowd and walked pass a bus stop a guy (who I had noticed watching me and hoped would leave me alone) cat called me with the phrase "Hey, Pretty Pants!" (referring to my trousers in his Jamaican accent and vernacular). I, of course, kept walking but I couldn't help but be amused by his "original" pick up line. So amused, that I laughed out loud as I walked away from him and told Kish about it the next time we met up, hence the nick-name "Pretty Pants".
Remember me saying that this happened before I locked my hair? Here's why that's an important detail...
Me and Kish actually went on to lock our hair shortly after that *clears throat* incident. Whenever people who are thinking about dreadlocks ask us questions about whether they should do it too, we often talk about the expected benefits of locking- like the low maintenance; improved health and strength of our hair- and laugh about the unexpected things- like the fact that men speak to you differently and, rather than calling you "pretty pants," "my size" and so on, use more respectful terms such as "Empress". Who knew, right?!
It's like that with PR too, sis. For example, you might be expecting PR to cause an increase to your visibility, credibility, email list and money- and rightly so! But some things that you may not be factoring in as a perk of PR (because I certainly didn't!) is: