Beyoncé and Ciara created songs fantasizing about being a boy for the perceived benefits, but for this eight-year-old girl, being mistaken for a boy cost her and her Oraha’s Azzuri Cachorros team a soccer tournament Sunday (June 4).
Mili Hernandez, who plays on the 11-year-old team because of her enhanced skills, wears her hair short and always has.
“When my hair starts to grow, I put it short because I always had short hair. So I don’t like my hair long,” the young soccer player tells Fox 8.
For Hernandez’s grooming preferences, Springfield Soccer Club’s Girls Tournament organizers disqualified the team before they were able to take the field. As any child would do, Mili cried for her team after the organizers alerted the team.
“Just because I look like a boy doesn’t mean I am a boy, but they don’t have a reason to kick out the whole team,” the eight-year-old articulated.
The Nebraska family went to the extent of showing the young girl’s insurance card, which blatantly identifies her as ‘female.’ But Mili’s brother, Cruz Hernandez says “they didn’t want to listen. They said that the president had made his decision and there wasn’t any changing that.”
Thankfully, Mili didn’t let the unfair treatment keep her down for too long stating, “Just because I can’t play here, there are other tournaments that I can play.”
And we’ll be rooting for Mili, wherever she goes.