Selina hates being laughed at when she is at school. She has inherited thick, curly, wavy BIG hair from her parent’s Samoan, Tuvaluan, Scottish, English, French and NZ backgrounds. Kids at school call Selina lots of names, but Mophead seems to stick.

When she compares her hair to the smelly, lank mop at home, she’s heartbroken. She cuts it, ties it, plaits it but her hair refuses to be tamed. Just wanting to be like everyone else, she finally wrangles it into a tight bun – so now she is the SAME.

One day a famous NZ poet called Sam Hunt comes to school. He’s tall and thin too, and look at his hair! It’s messy and frizzy and WILD. Can I be wild too, wonders Selina.

She lets her hair free, also freeing herself of all the inhibitions and constrictions of wanting to be the SAME, and not picked on anymore.

Not only is she now proud to be herself, poetry is a wonder to be explored!

A graphic memoir from an inspirational and remarkable New Zealander. Selina Tusitala Marsh is the first Pacific Islander to graduate with a PhD in English from The University of Auckland, and is now Associate Professor in the English Dept.

Selina has performed her poetry for the Queen of England, won multiple awards, became NZ Poet Laurete in 2017 and in 2019 was appointed an Officer of the NZ Order of Merit for services to poetry, literature and the Pacific community.

In red and black on white, Mophead’s illustrations are simple but powerful, portraying the complicated feelings and relationship Selina had with her hair and sense of self. Individuality was frightening at first but ultimately liberating, freeing her to be the true Selina.

Author /Illustrator – Selina Tusitala Marsh

Sophisticated Picture Book

(NZ, Award winning, Kiwi, Pasifika, Pacific Islander, New Zealand, Poetry, Individuality, Popularity, Fitting in, Bullies, Bullying, School, True self)