Naomi Campbell at her home in Jamaica (2003)

And when u gossiping make sure u tell them how I always came through for u.

Cupping your own boobs for no real reason is important enrichment for girls

Angela & Vanessa Simmons on Run’s House (2005)

Moesha (1996)

Choosing yourself

Choosing yourself doesn’t always start off beautifully

Sometimes it comes with strong winds and broken branches

until there’s no more leaves on your fruit tree that you tried to bear

Choosing yourself isn’t always beautiful

Most times it comes with heartaches and loneliness

just the right amount of tears to fill a bucket

Choosing yourself doesn’t always start beautifully

Most times it leaves you in a space where maybe considering not choosing yourself could fill a temporary happiness so you’re blind to the absence you’re feeling

and maybe that’s okay

Maybe that’s enough

Enough to get by that day

But one day the wind will calm down

and you’ll realize you’re still standing

even if the tree is bare

even if no one noticed how hard it was to walk away

So you let it fall

and you plant something new

something soft

something real

And maybe it’s not full yet

maybe it’s just a seed

but it’s yours

The automatic peace you feel when you leave it in God hands.

I don’t think people really understand what it’s like to grow up always feeling alone to have to teach yourself how to survive, how to think, how to move through life on your own terms. No one understands how loud your silence can be when your quietness has always been mistaken for strength. They don’t see how exhausting it is to only have yourself to depend on to know that if you fall too low, you might lose everything, even yourself.

Being alone has been both my greatest pain and my greatest teacher. It’s broken me and built me. It’s emptied me and filled me all at once. It’s brought me tears and joy, weakness and strength. It’s shaped how I think, how I love, and how I move through the world. Being alone feels empty, but somehow it’s also where I found the deepest parts of me.