Henry and Christina Halverson Crofton, MD b. 2023, 1984 Christina Halverson suggests that "the freedom to have opinions and express them" connects people "even though there are a lot of tense discussions". But in the United States people "can have their own opinions and not be imprisoned for them or ostracised from society."

Aarin Langford Portland, OR b. 1996 "My daughter's going to be ginger. I mean, there's always hope! I would love to pass that down. We will see. My grandma is a redhead, and my mom is kind of, but not really. In our family, it seems to skip a generation." (Aarin's beautiful baby was born a week after Kieran Dodds took her portrait and does not yet show ginger hair!)

Jonathan Haynie Portland, OR "I spent a lot of time up in Alaska. I was a wilderness guide up there, and funnily enough, my nickname was Firebeard. So that's my nickname with a lot of my friends now. I started growing my beard before I went to Alaska. And then when I got to Alaska and got my Firebeard nickname, I was like, alright, well, it's part of me. Even my wife hadn't seen me without a beard. If I shaved it off, I'd be like, should I get the hell out of here?"

Randa Henry-Smoke
Portland, OR b. 2019 Margaret Henry was surprised when her daughter was born, because Randa's biological father is native Alaskan. "He has black hair. The Koyukon Athabaskan people are very far north in Alaska, like Fairbanks. He has two other children who also have red hair: all three half-siblings have it. That's a very strong recessive gene!"

Allison Dubinski Brooklyn, NY b. 1984 Allison Dubinski was the only redhead in her class in Indiana, and was labelled as such. "There was a woman who always called me 'Rusty'. She said my parents left me out in the rain, so my hair turned rusty. A couple of kids called me Rusty because of that." In New York City, her hair colour is now a key asset to help her stand out in the competitive acting world.

Leyla Ersan Oregon City, OR b. 1995 "I have my own winery, but I'm also the general manager of a winery in Dundee. Both mine and my boss's are natural wineries." "We don't have vineyards, we just source from organic and biodynamic vineyard sites. Oregon is just the perfect climate to grow wine in, and this is where some of the most spectacular wine of the world is now being made." "My dad's from Turkey. And he's convinced he's 100 percent Turkish. My mum is from Scotland. The Borthwicks all moved to Iowa and became farmers there. Corn farmers."

Sims Capers Birmingham, AL b. 2023 Sims' mother (Kayla Capers): "My mother is white, my father is Black, and that's really the extent of what I know about my family. Most of my heritage is European. There's a little Scottish, I think I'm nine percent, and then Black, and that's really all."

Henry Davis and Henry Davis II Calera, AL b. 1996, 2023 Henry Davis: "It's funny, because my hair was the same colour. Literally everyone says he's the spitting image of me when I was little." "We're not really sure where it comes from. My dad is turning gray now. He'll get some red in his beard, and then it kind of goes gray. So I guess it's from his side." Henry Davis II's mother (Kadeshia Davis): "My doctor literally pulled him out and said, 'Oh my god, he has red hair like his dad'. I said, 'What!?'" Henry: "[People say], 'Oh my gosh, look at him, can we take a picture of him? Can I touch it?' All the weird things you can think of. 'I want to rub his hair.'"

Marjie Belcher-Shemanski Brooklyn, NY b. 1987 "I grew up in a dogmatic religious traditional family and was kind of stifled, it mattered a lot how you appeared. My dad was a pastor, so I had to always be hugging the old people and looking happy every day." "I taught violin in Detroit, I taught in Chicago, I taught in Philadelphia and lived there for a while. New York is the only place I've lived where people don't care how you look. They care what you say."

Rosalie Moore Salem, OR b. 2020 Mother (Jill Moore): "[Ginger hair] is common in our family, but my husband's side of the family is Asian. So it's sort of a unique happenstance, I guess. His mom was Chinese, but she was born and raised in Thailand."

Brian Shook La Mirada, CA b. 1970 "My mom's half Italian, but very fair and blonde. Sadly she doesn't really have any pictures as her mom died when she was young." "I have my sister, blonde, but both my father's parents were red, and his brother and three sisters. Apparently, when they were a young family going down the street, it was quite a sight." "They were in Northern California, San Jose area." "I don’t think I've ever had a ginger friend, it was very rare."

Luke Robson Cheverly, MD b. 2016 "We've been to Iowa, Georgia, Wyoming. They're still really nice and welcoming. It's more rural: I like that. Here I am always surrounded, always in a car, always at school."

Stephanie and Priscilla Robson Cheverly, MD b. 1979, 2011 Stephanie: "I think where we live, it feels more national in the local. Everyone is here because of politics, and they work in politics. They work in the federal government, or they try to bring federal issues down." "When you talk about the United States as a whole, what defines us, what I think brings us together, is a sense of freedom and free exercise of our rights."

Megan Byrne Brooklyn, NY b. 1974 "New York is a city of immigrants. My hair shows that I came from somewhere else. I've carried on this wonderful legacy of my ancestors." "So much of the spirit of America is represented in New York. There's a nature of working hard, of trying to survive and to make things better for the next generation. I think that's changing, we're in a scary time right now in America."

Jaxston Hudson Birmingham, AL b. 2018 Jaxston's mother (Stephanie Magee): "I think my life in Alabama connects to my upbringing in Montana and even Wyoming, because both Native Americans and African Americans share similar histories, with oppression by European coloni'ation, forced assimilation, land dispossession, and loss of language and cultural practices. In spite of the unspeakable doings against them, Native American and Black communities are resilient, strong, tight-knit, and care deeply for their members. They both exemplify selfless generosity and compassion."

Rachel and Liliana Releford Birmingham, AL b. 1992, 2021 "When I take my daughter to the grocery store, sometimes people will think that I'm a nanny or her babysitter. I'm like, nope, she's mine! I think you still get some people who grew up with the mindset that things need to be segregated. Some of my grandparents' friends were a little hesitant when they found out I was dating my husband: 'You're really going to let her date someone of a different race?' But my grandparents were like, 'Go for it. He's a cool guy, he's a sweet one.' I love him for who he is. He's a great human being."

Joshua Elliot Muscogee (Creek) Nation Broken Arrow, OK b. 2001 "People do have expectations of what I should look like, but I had those on myself. Initially because I didn't want to be a 'pretendian'. I realised, though, that it's not really about that at all, not a matter of your blood quota. "Our chief's wife told me it's about your involvement in your community and your tribe, the people around you and what you put back into it. Which I really took to heart." "My mom's side has always been involved with the Muscogee tribe, tribal lands, and traditions. I've grown up around it. Some of my mom's relatives were German, so that could be where the hair comes from. On Dad's side they are English with some Swedish."

Malachi Milligan Chickasaw Nation Ada, OK b. 2003 "We've been to stomp dances. We go to a cultural centre and hang out. I'll be around a lot of people that are very dark and definitely look Native, just like my dad. Then I feel that nobody will believe I'm a Native person because I look like this. In that sense, I don't fit, but I still take pride in it."

Colton, Bennett, Emmeline, Christopher, Amelia, and Genevieve Smith Burke, VA b. 2010, 2018, 2012, 1985, 2016, 2014 Christopher: "You feel just now there isn't a lot that unites people. In a lot of ways it feels like America is being pulled apart at the moment rather than being pulled together. One thing that pulls us together, probably more than anything, is the differences. Just the diversity and the differences. Everybody has a unique story of who they are and where their family's from. And that's something that you can ask anybody and everybody, because everybody has a different viewpoint, a different history, a different culture."

Lottie Wahkinney Comanche Nation Oklahoma City, OK b. 2020 Lottie's father (Jared Wahkinney): "Lottie is holding a jingle dress. At powwows there are different categories of dancing. A jingle dress is a healing dance. A lot of northern tribes have used that sort of dancing for a long time, and because she's Oneida as well we wanted to recognise that she has jingled. We brought her into the arena this past year. There's a little bit of bashfulness the first time when hundreds of people are surrounding you and you're in the spotlight, so we're still learning. "I was born and raised here, raised in our Comanche ways. My dad is Comanche. He was raised here in Lawton, Oklahoma. My mom, she's from Scotland, born and raised over there. So that's why my Lottie has a good mix of everything going on. "My Scottish grandparents would come over every summer. On my first visit to Scotland when I was twenty-two, folks were like, 'Where're your moccasins? Where's your headdress?' I explained I wear Nikes. If I'm describing to Scottish people what Oklahoma is like, I say, imagine all your hills are flat, and a little more brown. "You find a lot of similarities within cultures. Especially cultures that have been pushed aside and dispossessed as well."

Matthew Schad Richmond, VA b. 2019 Matthew's father (Michael Schad): "It's been really interesting having a child with red hair. We live in a very African American area, and Black women always stop him. They say his hair is so beautiful and will actually touch it. That is the most astounding thing to us."

Griff Courtney Gaithersburg, MD b. 1989 "They say we have a higher pain tolerance. I've had some pretty excruciating sports injuries, and I think I tolerated them better than if they had happened to someone else without red hair. It is also neat to have something that only a small percentage of the population shares."

Connor Lloyd Lookout Mountain, TN b. 2016 "I'm from Tennessee. The dog's name is Boudreaux. We're originally from Louisiana, so I chose a Louisiana name." "People say they like my hair."

Heidi Hetrick Lookout Mountain, GA b. 1999 "The scars of history are still visible. I feel like there's probably a lot more dissonance and negativity than there is connectivity between the states." "There's a unity in the fact that everybody has state pride and compares themselves to others. I think that's a uniquely American thing. Everyone is definitely American in thinking that they're probably better than everyone else." "It's very sunny in Atlanta. My sister has lovely olive brown skin. I wear a lot of sunscreen. I should honestly get a brand deal from how much sunscreen I use. The weather today is foggy and misty and rainy, and gorgeous."

Brian and Dave Devine Portland, OR b. 1972 Brian Devine: "Dad is full Irish. He grew up in Northern Ireland, just outside a small town called Strabane, in County Tyrone. He left in the 1950s. His parents couldn't afford to live there. They had no jobs and no way of making a living. So they came to Philadelphia." "Growing up in Philadelphia, we were definitely a package deal, the Devine brothers, that was kind of our brand. I think when we were in third grade, about eight years old, we switched to a new school. Being the new kids, redheads and skinny, we just stood out." "We live twenty minutes apart from each other in Portland, but our lives have overlapped in a lot of different ways. I'll be out somewhere, and someone'll be like 'Dave?' And vice versa. I've received a lot of hugs from people that I don't actually know. I bring it in, and then I'm like 'I think you’re looking for Brian, but it's all right, I'll take the hug, too.'"

Whitman Halvorson Lookout Mountain, GA b. 2004 "America is anything but an ethnically unified country. We've been talking about this in school, and one of the conclusions that we've come to is that none of us is really from here, and that is typically a bonding factor."

Keisha Engley Portland, OR b. 1994 Keisha Engley was a rare redhead growing up in the apple orchards of rural Washington State in the 1990s surrounded by Vietnamese American relations. Her American grandfather fought in Vietnam and met her grandmother there, love blossomed and they returned to the States together after the war. Then her grandmother's family came to live and work on the farm. "I grew up with all of my aunts and uncles living right next to each other in the middle of an orchard", she says. "People are very proud of where they come from, and they really love where they live."

Luci Lettau Orangevale, CA b. 2006 "I'm used to the sun. We maybe get only fifty or sixty days of rain a year where I'm from, in Sacramento. Sacramento County has about half the amount of people living in it that the entirety of Oregon does. Everything's huge there. Oregon is so small." "There's still this idea that we have everything in America. We have this grandiosity 'Look at us!' and I feel like that carries across a lot of the States, that we are the greatest country in the world. I feel like a lot of people have that mindset. I'm not sure if I quite agree the whole way, but I think it's still a uniting thing. There's always going to be things that fight against you and push against that idea, but I do think that America is one of the countries in the world where you have a lot of opportunity and agency to do what you want with your life."

Eli Earnest Tuscaloosa, AL b. 1988 "The whole patriotism thing seems to be going out, but one thing I do think makes America unite is that we have a rebellious nature, fighting about it. Every time."

Vander Hero and Sydney Asencio Santa Maria, CA b. 2022, 1990 Sydney Asencio: "When I go to other countries, I would just say I'm American. I'm from the United States. We call ourselves states, but it's really like little countries. That's not enough for people. They want to know your family history. So then I say Mexican American. "Oh, you're from Mexico", they say. Actually, I've never even been to Mexico. I don't have any family in Mexico. My family's been here for several generations. That's what makes me Mexican American."