Our first ever online post comes from high school senior, Taliya, who used parts of this poem in her college essays:

Dear young black girl

Let me undress you

Let me know you better than you do

Don’t let the other people shut you down

 

Why don’t you show off your smile?

You’re so closed off

Show off your battle scars

Show off who you are

Let me take you as you are.

 

Crooked smile, kinky hair, tiny ankles,

big stomach, wide back, chunky thighs

Stretch marks from head to toe.

Let me unravel the real you. 

What happens to a black girl that can’t see her magic?

How can you be shameful of the skin that you’re in, a beautiful, smart,

caring, creative

Black girl like you should understand that true beauty it rare

But somehow you found it without even trying.

 

Look in the mirror

Ignore what they all say.

You’re bigger

You’re louder

You’re weirder

But that makes you, you.

 

Instead of being so focused on hiding

yourself because it’s safer

Give yourself a chance to grow more

Open up more

 

Be the true you.