“A Black girl and her braids, a Black girl and her braids. Can’t tell her nothing.”

Those are the opening lines of poet and actress Jaylene Clark Owens’ sweetly emphatic new children’s picture book, “A Black Girl and Her Braids.” If you’re not familiar with the phrase “can’t tell her nothing,” a colloquialism from African American Vernacular English, it means to be confidently sure that you look spectacular and that no power on Earth or in heaven can convince you otherwise.

And that’s the joyous premise of Owens’ book, based on a viral poem she wrote about her own experience of glorying in the versatility of her hair. The words and images aren’t just striking on a surface level. They’re especially meaningful if you’re a Black woman old enough to remember when sporting those flowing, woven tresses would have gotten a far different response.

“There are so many institutions and rules telling us we’re not fly or that our fly is inappropriate. It’s very important for Black girls to know that it’s more than appropriate!” said Philadelphia native Owens, who will be reading her book for a special story time at National Harbor’s Mahogany Books Saturday. “It’s part of your culture. It’s not just a hairstyle. Don’t let anybody tell you anything different.”

The history of the book is rooted in the CROWN Act, which ensures the right of Black women to wear natural and cultural hairstyles without fear of discrimination. It was also influenced by her experience wearing knotless braids, which don’t need styling every day, once on vacation. “I didn’t want to worry about my hair,” she said.

It’s the reason so many Black girls wear the style, she said. And why so many Black female reality show contestants wear similar styles when they can’t access styling products trapped on an island or in a house full of cameras.

She remembers walking around Rodeo Drive with her best friends, taking photos and thinking, “These braids feel so good.”

“It’s such a unique feeling to be a Black girl and have your braids freshly done,” Owens said. ”I wanted to write a poem about this strong emotion.”

And write she did. The experience became the poem, which became the collection “A Black Girl and Her Hair,” featuring my favorite, “A Black Girl and Her Switch Up,” about the creative versatility of our style. The best line? “He said ‘Wasn’t your hair different yesterday?’ I said ‘Baby, I’m a Black woman. My hair was different five minutes ago.’”

The original poem was dedicated to Black women freely wearing their hair in the world but, as it went viral, videos of little girls dancing to the poem spread.

“My heart was so warmed,” she said. “It was amazing seeing Black joy, shaking their braids. It made me feel so happy.”

“A Black Girl and Her Braids” focuses not only on a young girl celebrating that fresh braid moment but other women and girls living in their fabulousness, unapologetically. Illustrator Brittney Bond’s images for the book are proud and vibrant. I’m both happy for and jealous of the kids who get to see themselves represented like this.

The little girl character in the book reminds Owens of herself as a child at the African hair braiding salon in Philly and how good she felt. That assurance came in handy when pitching the book, because while a lot of people kinda got it, they didn’t get it get it.

Owens said the first few potential editors she met wanted her to focus on the joy of the hair experience and not on the CROWN Act or the discrimination that had made that joy so elusive. “I knew I wasn’t going to compromise on that work. As a spoken word poet who writes about social justice, I knew I didn’t want to take that out,” she said.

But when she met her current editor at Penguin Random House, a Black woman with braids, she knew she’d found a good space. “‘There’s no way! We want to highlight that section,’” she remembered her saying.

The book may have braids in the title, but the point is the versatility and freedom of being who you want to be at any moment, without fear of getting fired or kicked out of school. Wear twists. Wear a wig. Blow it out. Wear a scarf. Just be you.

“The rules are against being who you are. Let these kids know from a young age that you are valuable and worthy, and should be accepted,” Owens said. “Everything you are is accepted everywhere.”