By Christopher Hill

Briana and her daughter Nova had a conversation about the little girl's desire to have straight hair during this week’s Teen Mom 2 episode. Now, the mother of two is speaking to MTV News about the issues surrounding the wishes of her offspring, who's of African-American and Puerto Rican descent.

“You only see blonde Barbies," Briana said about the lack of black and Latin representation for children. "You don’t really see African-American dolls. It’s sad -- these little kids are raised to want straight hair and blue eyes."

Briana's solution: Let her firstborn known know that there are people who want to look just like her.

“I told her that there are people who go to tanning salons to get her color," Briana revealed. "I told her that people die to have her kind of hair. I try to influence her in that way, so that she’s not sad about it."

The exchange about Nova's hair wasn't the only incident on this week's TM2 installment involving the five-year-old: Briana spoke with her ex Devoin about why it's important for Nova to have a relationship with her father's clan.

“She has a side of her family that she should get to know, because they look just like her," Briana explained. "She has no idea who that side of the family is.”

So has Devoin made a change?

“It’s sad that he hasn’t really stepped up to the plate to help out when it comes to that," Briana confirmed. "I really don’t even think he understands that Nova has issues when it comes to her skin color and hair. There’s only so much I can do, because I don’t have hair like her. I don’t have the same color skin as her."

Despite setbacks with Devoin, Briana and her family continue to try to instill self-love in Nova and tell her she's beautiful every day. In addition, Briana is taking steps to educate Nova about another way to style her hair.

"There’s a braiding class that I want to do with Nova that’s only for black girls," Briana stated. "I also want her dad to be a part of it, because this is something he can talk to her about, but her dad doesn’t really step up, so I guess it’s up to me to figure it out for her.”

"Everybody should be seen equally," she concluded. "We all have blood, we all have bones. The color of skin and hair texture may be different, but that shouldn’t mean anything … I just want little girls to love themselves.

Be sure to keep watching Briana and Nova every Monday on Teen Mom 2 at 9/8c.