self image

Some people would say my bangs make me look younger and I should grow them out, but I disagree. My bangs don’t magically change my appearance, but my forehead feels naked without them.

All that to say, I’ve seen my share of naked bodies. I am glad that there are spaces where people can feel comfortable disrobing, and when we pass through such a beach, I find it normal. I simply have no desire to join them.

It’s OK to do something you normally wouldn’t do and for some reason, giving myself weird “permission” was what I needed. While it was true that Lori wouldn’t normally do something like this, maybe that was the exact reason she should.

When I got boobs, I also got a body. A body that was (and is) not skinny.

I am not Kim Kardashian. But I look like Kim Kardashian. There are a million songs about my body, but very few songs about me.

As Americans we have fallen prey to a particular "look" —namely white and thin—and suffer from an inability to shatter it. The result? A backhanded compliment of the hybrid variety: “You’re pretty . . . for a black girl.”