Watch this 2-year-old girl's reaction to seeing hair bonnet like hers on TV

The girl's mom shared a video on TikTok, where it went viral.

March 8, 2022, 4:01 AM

A 2-year-old girl has gone viral for her reaction to seeing a TV character wear a bonnet.

Mila Peacock, 2, of Baltimore, had for weeks refused to wear a bonnet at night to protect her hair, according to her mom, Michaela Peacock.

Peacock said she saw an episode of "Rise Up, Sing Out" -- a series of animated, musical shorts on Disney+ focused on race and culture and community -- that focuses on wearing bonnets to bed, and decided to show it to Mila before bedtime.

Peacock said it worked and Mila kept her bonnet on overnight after watching the TV characters do the same in the episode, titled, "Super Bonnet."

Hoping to help other parents, Peacock shared a video of Mila watching "Super Bonnet."

In the video, Mila points at the screen and says "bonnet" as she wears her own.

"It really did help us, so I genuinely was like I know this is going to help other people," Peacock told "Good Morning America." "Especially when you're spending two, three hours doing braids and doing your little girl's hair, you want it to stay intact. It's really important that they have that on at night."

Peacock's video garnered millions of views on social media, and caught the eye of Nia Madison Thompson, who voices the character Taniya on "Rise Up, Sing Out."

Last week, Mila joined Nia on Instagram for a sing-a-long of the "Super Bonnet" song. Nia said that moment showed why "representation matters."

"If you can see it, you can be it!" Nia wrote on Instagram. "This is one of key reasons why I am an actor, singer and activist!"

Peacock described it as "really beautiful" to watch her daughter watch someone who looks like her on TV.

"It’s not something that I had as a child, nor did my mother or generations before, it’s hard to even put into words," she said. "It's really beautiful to be able to watch her look at herself on screen -- not just in that episode but in the entire series -- it’s huge."

Peacock added that she hopes Mila's video inspires creators to include more representation in their art, and that it inspires parents to find diverse shows and books for their kids.

"It is hard ... but almost every major platform has at least a handful of shows now," said Peacock. "We've just got to make sure we're utilizing them and making sure that we're watching them so that we can get more shows and the seasons can be renewed, and that we're actually supporting these creators."

The Walt Disney Co. is the parent company of ABC News.