At just 10-year-old Evanston’s own Avery Jenkins runs a non-profit called Avery’s Helpful Hair Kits, which provides hair care products for Black children in foster care. The business gained momentum at its start in 2023 as Illinois passed the Hair Care for Youth in Care Act. WNUR’s Moriah Pettway has the story.
Host Intro: At just 10-year-old Evanston’s own Avery Jenkins runs a non-profit called Avery’s Helpful Hair Kits, which provides hair care products for Black children in foster care. The business gained momentum at its start in 2023 as Illinois passed the Hair Care for Youth in Care Act. WNUR’s Moriah Pettway has the story.
The Greenwood Street storage facility in Evanston is where Avery, her mom, Petina, and volunteers assemble kits for Black children in local foster homes. They give out about 100 kits per month, or as requested, and the organization Give-N-Kind helps distribute them.
STORAGE FACILITY MOVEMENT
With a bright smile and big purple glasses, Avery pulls products like shampoo out of tall cardboard boxes and puts them in clear plastic pouches that read Avery’s Helpful Hair Care.
Avery Jenkins: So you got a bonnet in there you said shampoo, conditioner any other products. Um there’s gel and then there is, I think there are some hair ties too in some of them, so yea kinda like what you would use on a wash day or just maybe just on a regular day just doing your hair.
Avery’s mom, Petina, says that Avery’s passion for doing hair began early in her childhood.
Petina Dixon-Jenkins: Avery’s always been able to do her own hair, I taught her how to do her hair since she was a little girl and she takes a lot of pride in doing different styles, she goes on Youtube, she watches tutorials, she taught herself how to do box braids with extensions, I don’t know how to do box braids with extensions but she teaches herself techniques, she’s really dedicated and she likes that hair is a way that she can express herself.
The non-profit began when Avery shared her personal hair products with a foster child.
Avery Jenkins: So about when I was six, my mom asked me if she could give some of my hair products to a foster mom for her foster child’s hair. And from that experience. I was able, we were able to buy the products and the bags, the brushes, and assemble them and give them out to whichever foster facility needs them.
She says the kits make sure that Black children have access to hair products made for their hair type.
Avery Jenkins: Also sometimes, maybe in foster care or just in any situation, some kids with curly hair or um, highly textured hair might not have like the products that they need, or even like the brushes, they might have to use combs.
In June 2025, the state of Illinois passed the Hair Care for Youth in Care Act. The act says that foster families must be provided with a culturally appropriate hair care plan for each child in their care. Sabrina Fisher is a former DCFS child welfare specialist. She saw how Avery’s kits supported the bill when she gave one to a White mother who was struggling to take care of her Black foster child’s hair.
Sabrina Fisher: But I presented this to the foster mother and like she got really wispy and she was like, when I say wispy, she was misty-eyed. And she was really thankful when I explained what Avery’s helpful hair was and why Avery created it. And, um. It just, it, it really made me feel like I was helping.
This year, Avery hit a milestone of distributing 1,000 kits, but her favorite part of the process is the kids’ reactions to receiving one.
Avery Jenkins: And also, I just am so excited that I get to hear from the kids sometimes, or I get to know that they actually got it and received it and they loved it.
Even with all the change she’s making in her community, she still enjoys her favorite pastime.
Avery Jenkins: Also I have one more thing, I have this kind of hidden talent, some people know about but I ride a unicycle because I went to circus camp, well I’ve been going to circus camp these past summers so yes.
Avery heads back to circus camp this summer, knowing that she helped even more kids look and feel their best.
For WNUR News, I’m Moriah Pettway.
