With the hype and overwhelming admiration for the recent Netflix supernatural television mini-series; Stranger Things, you knew that sooner than later, life would somehow find it’s way to imitating art, and we think we’ve found a contender who has nailed that old adage to a T.

Olivia a 9 year old girl who lives in Los Angeles and is at an age where she is being very clear about who she is and how she wants to look. So when she decided to shave her head before going back to school, her parents were more than supportive of their daughters choice. With this bold move came the explanation and justification that the length of your hair doesn’t change who you are, that no matter it’s size, you can still be confident, powerful and treat people with kindness.

Some of these traits were evident in the character of ‘Eleven’, the mysterious shaved-head girl with the tel-kinetic powers who stole the show in Stranger Things. Though her family wouldn’t let her actually watch the hit Netflix series (other than a short clip on YouTube), Olivia and her mom Ozma had some fun recreating the look of ‘Eleven’, from the character’s costume to some fun poses that look like they came right off the set of the show itself.

Click ahead for some more fun recreated photos and more about the story of Olivia and her quest for her self-identity.

We caught up with Olivia’s mom Ozma and she told us the amazing story of Olivia’s choice to shave her head and the connection to Stranger Things.

“Basically- we were talking about hairstyles and if she wanted to get anything done to her hair before starting school (she had it shaved one one side and long on the other) and she looked at me and said “I really want to shave it all off.”

So at first I explained that I fully supported her wanting to do that and we talked about people who are women who have their hair that way. I showed her before/after photos of Charlize Theron when she was in Mad Max and some of women I know who have short/shaved hair of different ethnicities. Then I showed her pictures of Eleven from Stranger Things. She asked me about it more and I explained the character as someone with incredible powers who has been treated bad and believes she is a monster, but uses her powers to save a friend who is in trouble- and Olivia really liked that.

We went onto YouTube and I showed her the video Millie Bobbie Brown (the character of Eleven) posted of her hair getting shaved and Olivia got all excited and said, “Mom I want my hair like that.” She didn’t want me to take her to get it done, she wanted me to do it, so I did and even though I was worried because it’s a bit choppy she LOVED it. I also mentioned being concerned about her (biological) dad’s response and she was like, “It doesn’t matter. It’s my hair.” It was a super, super proud mom moment for me. She is very much about being true to herself and I am extremely proud of that.

Afterwards, I did let Olivia watch one clip from the show, the scene in which the bullies want Mike to jump into the quarry and then Eleven saves him. After seeing just that one scene, she said, “I can see this is intense. I will probably like to watch it when I’m 13.” My daughter is way cooler than me. Like- by a lot.”

Of course we were curious about the fun photo-shoot of Olivia recreating some iconic looking scenes from the show dressed as ‘Eleven’. We wondered where they sourced the costumes and did anyone comment about her incredible similarity to the Netflix show’s character while in public? Here’s what Ozma had to say.

“We actually had everything, Olivia has had that sweater for several years, the dress was a thrift-store find, the shoes we had and those socks were soccer socks. Coincidentally, that tiger she’s had too, we took it for the shoot because I saw a similar one in the show. When we eventually went out, we stopped at the grocery store for the Eggos and the only one who said anything was the check out lady. She looked at Olivia and said, “You are just gorgeous.” and then Olivia smiled and kind of half hid behind me. After that we went to find a place to go shoot the pictures and my daughter said “There’s a great place with Eucalyptus trees behind my school and stick tents the kids made!” so we went there and no one was around. We took our last shot by the bus that was parked on the lot before we left. We laughed a lot because she actually loved the Eggo waffles cold.”

Thanks to Ozma and Olivia for letting us share this story and some of these fun pictures with our viewers. It’s pretty uncanny, she’s certainly nailed the look and what an incredible coincidence that Eleven and Olivia sound alike…ok, we may be stretching the similarities a tad too far. Maybe not.

Remember, Halloween is coming and if your daughter wants to shave her head, you have a perfect opportunity to have fun with her by letting her be ‘Eleven’ this year, just head to your nearest Goodwill to assemble the outfit and local grocery-store for those Eggos!

Follow Olivia’s journey on Instagram and check her out as characters from other movies like Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Beetlejuice and Harry Potter, at manyfacesofolivia726

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