Life as a New Mom: What I Want My Daughter to Know About Beauty

It's "Body Confidence Week," and I've been thinking about how hard it is going to be to raise a daughter. Ladies, y'all know what I mean. How do I teach my daughter that she is beautiful inside and out? How do I inspire confidence in her? How do I teach her not to judge herself and not to judge others based on unrealistic beauty standards?

Try not to read this without throwing up in your mouth a little: a bunch of random jerks on the internet decided to declare this week "Fat Shaming Week." Seriously. I'd give you a link to the blogger who started it all, but that scumbag doesn't deserve the web traffic.  The idea was for this blogger and any other miserable low life to go on social media and insult any woman or girl they deemed "fat." Totally repulsive behavior.

As a result, people across the world have decided to take back the power from these mean and shallow people and declare this week to be "Body Confidence Week." It's a time for all of us to celebrate our own beauty, to think about the ways we're exceptional instead of the ways we're inferior, and to hopefully inspire others to do the same.

It's so important to me that my daughter grows up to be confident, and to know that she's special, smart, and beautiful. I don't want her to look in the mirror and think she's flawed or fat or anything less than the beautiful girl she is. I want to teach her, to inspire confidence in her, and guide her as she grows into a strong young woman.

I took the time yesterday to write her a letter. It was originally posted on her blog, but I wanted to share it with y'all. It's written to my daughter, but I feel like the message is relevant to all the women in my life. Take a moment to read it--and to remember that YOU are beautiful, too! My letter to my daughter follows below.

Hello My Sweet One,

I have a few moments to myself this afternoon which means I have the time to write you and let you know that you, Dolores Anne, are beautiful. You are the most beautiful person I have ever seen, and it shall remain that way forever.

You are beautiful, sweetheart. I want you to know that. I want you to always know that you are beautiful and that your immense and eternal beauty belongs to you and you alone.

The world is unfair to us girls. I wish it weren't that way, but it is and it’s my job as your Momma to prepare you for life and its often harsh realities. Society makes girls feel like our value isn't determined by who we are, what we have achieved, or where we have been—our value is determined simply by how we look.

Movies, TV shows, magazines, and commercials will all try to tell you that you can only be beautiful if you look a certain way, wear a certain outfit, or weigh a certain number. I want you to know that is a 100% lie. These things only exist to make other people money—companies think that if they can make us girls feel insecure, then we’ll spend all our money trying to make that feeling go away. They want you to think that your body and your beauty are a commodity.

Don’t believe them. Don’t ever believe them. Your body belongs to you, not a company, not an advertiser, not another boy or girl at school. As girls (and eventually as women) our bodies are capable of so many wonderful things! We can use them to run, to walk in the park, to swim, to sing, to help other people. Our bodies are OUR bodies. We choose how to dress them, how to feed them, how to present them; never, ever, EVER let anyone or anything take that power from you.

 I want you to always hold your head high. I want you to be confident, to possess courage and conviction, and to always know that you are beautiful.

 You are beautiful… and you are also smart. You are kind, and you are capable of achieving great things—all of which make you even more beautiful.

I love you, honey, and I am so proud of you.

Always,

Momma