The Disney fairy tale “Little Mermaid” inspired a little girl from Texas to create a wild yet beautiful hairdo that won the “Crazy Hair Day” at her school on Mar. 20.
Pre-kindergartener Atlantis Romero’s school had a hairstyle competition, and she asked her mother for an idea. Her mother, struck with an inspiration, decided to model her hairdo after Princess Ariel, who lived in the underwater city of Atlantica—based off the mythical city of Atlantis.
She entered the contest at her school, Clear Lake United Methodist Church preschool, and won. ABC reported that the judges at the school were amazed by the creative interpretation of the Disney movie.
As it turned out, Atlantis Romero’s older sister, who shared the pictures of her little sister’s hairdo on Twitter, was named after the main protagonist of the fairy tale.
my mom did the mermaid because my name is ariel and my sister is Atlantis which is where ariel lives under the sea 🙂 we’ve grown up loving mermaids thanks to my parents ????
— ariel (@aireuhl_) March 19, 2019
“My mom did the mermaid because my name is Ariel and my sister is Atlantis which is where Ariel lives under the sea 🙂 we’ve grown up loving mermaids thanks to my parents,” Ariel Romero wrote.
Atlantis Romero’s mother braided her hair with an Ariel doll inside and painted the braid green in order to mimic the character’s mermaid tail.
“My mom was not playing games and really wanted her to win,” Ariel Romero wrote.
She said her mother would have braided her daughter’s hair in a fishtail style, but did not know how.
my mom didn’t do a fishtail braid because she’s a beginner braider so the fishtail braid was a little more hard. She did what she could do and still succeeded ????????
— ariel (@aireuhl_) March 19, 2019
“My Mom didn’t do a fishtail braid because she’s a beginner braider, so the fishtail braid was a little more hard,” she wrote. “She did what she could do and still succeeded.”
Ariel Romero said her father also contributed to the hairdo. He fashioned a top for the Ariel doll out of tape.
“The doll was topless, but my mom couldn’t let my sister go to school with a topless doll,” she said. “Everyone was part of this hairstyle!”
Lots of people responded to her tweet praising the hairdo and its creativity, while others reminicised on their childhood or what they would do if they had children.
Other people also responded with their own version of creative hairdos, with one parent commenting that she also did the same thing for her own daughter three years prior.
Awww i love it!! i did this for my daughter 3yrs ago too ????????♀️ pic.twitter.com/IY2I9KXWXR
— Lenny IN love (@lenydehernadez) March 20, 2019
Another user posted pictures of her mother’s creative hairdo for her little sister, sporting cupcake-like hair on top of her sister’s head.
my mom made sure my 5 y/o lil sis won her crazy hair day at school too ???????? and ofc my 3 y/o lil sis wanted to be just like her big sis (hence the last pic) ???? pic.twitter.com/bblKaHWtct
— уαzмιηє (@yazqween) March 20, 2019
2018 Christmas jumper day ☃️ pic.twitter.com/HcDKSKvjft
— Chlo???? (@ChloBlanchett) March 20, 2019
Ariel and Atlantis Romero’s mother, April Castillo, also makes creative cakes for any occasion and uses Instagram to document them.
View this post on InstagramOmg!! My baby went viral!! Thanks @aireuhl_ for posting your sister on twitter!!
Castillo documented on Instagram how her daughter went viral, and thanked her daughter Ariel Romero for posting the pictures on Twitter, where it got over 748,000 likes, more than 137,000 retweets, and over 2,900 comments at the time of this publication.