Valley Girl

“Valley girls” don’t come only from California. This valley girl is from the Omo Valley in northeastern Africa (mainly Ethiopia) and is of the Suri tribe. The young girls of this tribe paint themselves with white clay paint in very decorative patterns and utilize the local flora and fauna, as well as “found items” (such as bottle caps) to adorn themselves, often with quite a spectacular and beautiful result. Many women from this tribe, along with the Mursi tribe, also have their lower teeth removed at puberty and begin the process of stretching the lower lip in order to wear a lip plate—a “look” that is strange and perhaps not very attractive to the Western eye.