In this article, Erin Brooks, a strategic sourcing manager of core technologies at Tesla Motors, shares her experience as a blonde woman engineer struggling to be taken seriously by male colleagues.

While I am immensely proud of being a woman engineer, I used to alter my appearance to fit in with the male collective at work. I wasn’t showing up to work as my true self. Only as I’ve gained seniority and become more professionally successful, have I become more comfortable with letting my blond hair down, figuratively and literally.