Adulthood, Hairpins

Within the next few years, I will have spent more time living abroad than in my native country, Taiwan. I made these hairpins to symbolize my transition into adulthood.

In ancient Chinese and Korean culture, a girl will be given a hairpin when she comes of age as a woman. It usually happens when she turns 15 and her parents have already found a husband for her to marry. If not, a girl could also get a hairpin when she turns 20 and becomes a woman.

I made these decorative motifs that can be put on a hairpin by duplicating the letter A from "adulthood." I then rotated the A six times to represent the idea of a well-balanced person in six different aspects of life: physical, mental, emotional, social, financial, and spiritual.

Each pin is placed in its own individual box, so it lives in a protective case rather than just by itself. And I included three life lessons of womanhood that my mother wanted me to remember. Two of these lessons she got from my two grandmas and one lesson she realized on her own —

Teach your children well.
Have common interests with your husband.
Be financially independent.

I chose to write these lessons down in Roman Cursive because I like the elegance and fluidity of the script. It looks similar to uppercase handwriting. The lessons are personal so it doesn’t matter if other people understand them or not. In addition, I intentionally left the fourth lesson blank for me to add to later in life. The sheet of paper is folded into an accordion sheet because that makes it much easier and less noticeable to add in additional slots for future lessons.