What We See, We Become!

We all have something about ourselves that we do not necessarily like. Something we would, maybe, change if we could. A feature, a personality trait… something more fitting to our environment, our group of friends, our lover, our future aspirations. Everything we see in the media tells us what we should aspire to or who we should be. Family and friends have opinions of what we should look like and how we should conduct ourselves. Rarely, is the message self-acceptance and self-love. Too often, we rarely have the time to figure out what self-acceptance and self-love even looks like. I struggled so much with those two concepts and I still struggle with them. I do not always like what I see when I look in the mirror. I have gained weight and lost weight and gained some more. I have gone between natural hair (thinking it would give me some sort of authenticity) and relaxed hair (feeling that maybe it would make me more beautiful) and back again... that is a blog for another time. My self-confidence and self-awareness has been a constant yo-yo of love and loathing… and I cannot help but wonder if my battle would have been eased or even non-existent if I would have seen more representation of “ I love me” growing up. If older generations, allowed kids to “come out of a child’s place” for just a moment and have those hard conversations… If I was allowed to listen to the aunts and uncles gathered around the table speaking of their woes and life lessons. Would my appreciation for myself be any different? I became what I saw… which was uncertainty. A child never being allowed to be a part of the hard conversations, into an adult unequipped to have them. What we see we become… which is why my daughter and I read “ I Like Myself” as often as she will come out of her room long enough for us to read it (shes in the pre pre-teen stage where she just wants to watch her shows in her room lol).

This book inspires my children’s book writing because it reminds me to be MY authentic self (not some rendition of what I think I saw). My goal is to convey characters who represent self-adoration while seeking the spirit of growth. To have the “hard conversations” with children so that they are equipped adults. If you have littles in your life, add this book to your list!