With her blue and black spiked mohawk, Heidi is very much an individual. For her, as for many young people, the kind of haircut you have and the clothes you wear are an important means of self-expression.

The problem, however, is that such a bizarre, colorful haircut is strictly against the rules of her school, which are rigidly enforced by the principal. But Heidi knows that the rules are arbitrary, as students can still dye their hair so long as it's in the school colors. This gives her the perfect opportunity to expose the absurdity and hypocrisy of the school rules.

In standing up for herself and her haircut, Heidi isn't being willful. She's not only standing up for what's right, she's also expressing her individuality. She may be a student at the school, and of course, she's expected to toe the line when it comes to following the rules. But when the rules are so patently wrong and so destructive of individuality, then someone in the student body needs to show courage in standing up and challenging them. Heidi's ideally placed to do this, as she is such a unique individual with a singular personality. It is notable, too, how at the end of the poem Heidi's friend performs an “act of solidarity,” dying her hair in the school colors as a “witty tease.”