Self Love vs Self Loath

The majority of us are thankful enough to have grown up in loving homes. From a young age everyone from your parents, teachers and even to family friends were gushing over us, telling us how 'cute' and 'pretty' we were. This enabled us to transform these compliments into our own personal notions of self love. There wasn't anyone around to dispute this fact so you were able to look in the mirror and love everything that you saw and didn't have a care in the world. Then the transition from childhood to adolescence began. People wouldn't heistate to point out every little flaw that you had. The media portrayed the image that if you weren't skinny and white, you weren't beautiful. This aided the creation of the line that every black girl has heard in their life, 'you're pretty for a black girl'. Although unaware, black people, girls especially, were fed with the worlds ideal perception of beauty of which they didn't match the criteria.

This unfortunately caused many girls to alter their image in order to become society's norm. Whether this meant constant straightening of their hair to bleaching their skin, many did whatever they could in an attempt to fit in. It is time for young black girls to embrace their natural beauty. Love your dark skin and the coily texture of your hair because that is what makes us unique. Love yourself before you try and look to the love of others because sometimes it won't always be there. It's time for us to celebrate our natural melanin and uphold the culture that makes us unique.