Food for Thought | Natural Beauty
Today, I am going to do something completely different for what I usually do. I am going to focus on natural beauty, inner beauty and confidence. Now, I know that a lot of people love to be able to connect with others on a deeper level and get to see that some people have the same issues that they do.
Now, the inspiration for me to do this natural beauty post, actually came for two YouTubers I watch, which is Amanda Ensing and Christen Dominique. They both made me take a step back and look at my life and the struggles I went through to become the person I am today. So, today I thought that I would share with you my natural beauty, inner beauty and confidence and also give advice to some of you. This is going to be a long post.
My Life
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| Mom and I |
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| My two younger sisters from L-R : Ohemaa (8) and Nana (15) |
Well, where do I start. I was born on March 3, 1995 in North York, Toronto. I am the eldest of three girls. Both of my parents are immigrants, they are from Ghana. I would consider my family to be prettier special and important, like most of us do. As a young child, I was loved and spoiled by every family member for about five years before my sisters was born. My parents raised my in country that they saw fit for me for better opportunities for me and for themselves.
Elementary and Middle School Experiences
As a young child, I was very photogenic, love to take photos and loved to go out to park and explore the world with my mom, dad, aunts, uncles , and cousins. As I got older, I quiet and to myself. If there is one thing, that no really knows about me is that my first language was Twi, which is the Ashanti language in Ghana. I went to Junior Kindergarten with not knowing a lot of English, because for the last four years my parent raised me speaking their native language. The one thing that I remember as a child, was a teacher telling my mom that I need to be in Special Education because something was "wrong" with me. My mom told the teacher that I was fine. The one thing that my parents made sure of, was that I was connected to my roots and made sure I knew where I came from. So, they named me Maame Animah-Gyebi. When teacher ask what they should call me, my mom said 'Nana' because she believe that couldn't not pronounce my name. From grade 1-4, I had a pretty good school experience and I got to enjoy myself and learn different things, but most importantly I got to make new friends. When I got to grade 5, I had one teacher who called me my birth name. I remember her saying my name and asking me "Why don't call you use your name, Maame, it is such a beautiful name". I told her that I didn't know and people and teacher had gotten use to calling me 'Nana'. So, I went home and I told my mom that I going to let people call me by real name and she said as long as I am happy with. So, from grade 5 onward, people called me Maame. I was happy with finally accepting my name and creating my identity. I was in grade 6 or 7, some guy started to bullied me and he actually called me 'Medusa' because my hair was braided and I remember I didn't say anything and I just went to a corner and cried. I wasn't a person who fought, I always dealt with things by crying in corner, but I never told the teachers. When I hit grade 7, I want to be different, I didn't want to be the girl who cried for everything, so I started to speak up more. There was an incident that happen in grade 7, that at the time, my best friend has slapped me in the face and my reaction was me standing there and I had to think about what I was going to do next. I slapped her back, I know not a good decision. From that day, people got scared to piss me off because they thought I was going to slap them. Before ending middle school, my cousins told me that I had to grow up and not be a wuss anymore, because high school is going to be a lot tougher. I hadn't really thought about my confidence, inner beauty and loving myself. I think at this point in time, I didn't think about because I believe or convince my self that I am not a confident person and that I not important. I really to know how to love myself, I dependent on other to show me love.
High School Experience
When I got to high school, it was a different ball game. For me, I had stuck to being a quiet individual and stuck with the same group of friends for elementary and middle school with ( I am still friends with them) and meet a few new people. Grade 9 was the year I had to define who I was. It was the year, where I had to make a change because I could not always be quiet and shy. I think for my it all started, with my cousins and my parents, especially my mom. My parents allows taught to me stick up for my self and I should not let anyone walk all over me. My mom was the best factor for me, for me being who I am told. She has watch me over in a young lady, but her biggest fear for me going to high school was that I will not be able to protect or carry myself because I was so quiet and shy. My mom sat me down and she told me that I had to be more confident in myself and I had to love myself for who I was and all my flaws. My mom told me that for the longest time, she believe that I had a low-self esteem and low confidence. I never believed in myself and believe in what I can do to make a difference in myself. My mom likes to say that I did a 360 with my confidence, personality, and self-esteem. When it came to makeup, the only thing I knew was eyeliner and mascara. I didn't wear any foundation or anything. I was happy with how I looked and no really cared about how I looked either. As high school continued, I become such a strong, independent, outgoing, loud, confident person and I was able to finally be myself. My personality allowed to me to make more friends and have a leadership in certain activities that I never thought I would have. I started wearing full on makeup [which really means, eyebrows, foundation or BB cream, mascara, eyeliner and lip balm or gloss] in Grade 11 and I actually learned how to do my eyebrows first, how to fill them in and shape them from YouTube. My family and friends accepts me for who I was and was able to see the difference in who I was. I also gained some weight in high school. I never really cared about my weight gain. I believe that even if I gained weight, I would be the same person and they everyone in my life would still love me for me. When Grade 11 and 12 hit, that when I started to think out my outer beauty, how people see me. I never really wore makeup and I was not good at it either. The summer of grade 11, I worked at a summer camp with some of my cousins and friends. This is when my weight become an issue for me. I heard other camp leader, saying that 'Oh she is so big' or posting a picture of me and commenting something in Twi. I had to stop and look and examine myself. Was I really happy with my body? But, at the end of the summer, I ignore everything they said and I went about my life and I was not until grade 12, prom season, I started to think about my weight again. But, again I did not let is bother me and I made sure that I was the best looking plus size girl at prom. For me, my weight affect how people looked at me, but I found a way to ignore them and continue with my life. High school was the biggest deal for me when it came to confidence, loving myself, inner beauty and natural beauty. High school is where I learned to accepted that that I am was not the slimmest girl in school and the most important thing I can do is be happy for myself. Not to care in what other people think, this help build my confident. Learned the most important thing to beauty, was to love myself and accept my imperfections because I am human and I was not build to be perfect. I learned to go to school for four year with wearing makeup, even when I did start wearing makeup, I had days where I would go to school with no makeup and I did not care what people said or what they where thinking.
Now, I am in University...
University was an exciting chapter in my life and I wanted to come and lose weight and go back home and show people that I'm slim, but that did not happen. I gained the freshman 15 and I still have my freshman 15. As a sociology student, I understand society standard of women and body image and I refused to change myself for society. So, I told myself that if I am going to eat healthier and workout I was doing it for the health reasons, not to be slimmer. I was doing it to help decrease in diseases that I may get for my bad eating habits. Now for my inner beauty and confidence, that has not change. I wear makeup to school every day, however I am able to go out in public without makeup on and I do not care what people have to say because I am confident in myself and that is all I need to go into this world. All of my friends that I have made in university accept me for me and love me for me. I am able to be myself in a setting with other young adults who may have had a more difficult time of accepting themselves, but I am able to connect with them and have conservation that in deep and reflective. As my for my long time friends, they have accepted me and some have dealt with me for more than ten year and other least then then, but they have a good sense of who I am.
What I have learned and what I want to tell you...
I have learned to accept me for me. To embrace all my flawless and what people judge me about. We know that the hardest critic of us is ourselves, so I do want to hear what other have to say about how I look, because I am aware of what they see. What I have done now, is that I have accepted that I am a plus size girl. Some may say that I am not plus size, or some may say that I am plus size, but I am lower scale. And, you know what, yes I aware of that, but I do not care. As long as I am happy with who I am, I do not have to listen to anyone else. What I can tell you is to always have your best self forward. I am a plus size girl, okay, then I will be the best dressed plus size girl in my group of friends. I will carry myself in a way that people will take a step back and see that I am a intelligent young lady who has something to offer the world. My mom always told me that " The way you carry yourself, is the way people look and treated you. So, always look presentable because it tell people who you are". And, that is what I want to tell you. If you want change yourself, change yourself for YOU, not for anyone else, not for your mom, dad, brother, sister, or boyfriend or girlfriend. Change yourself for YOU, because they most important person that need to be happy with their confident, inner beauty, and natural beauty is YOU. Makeup is a way the show out natural beauty and enhance all the things, people do not see often, but remember the at the end of the day, makeup washed off and you have to be happy in your skin and be happy with your natural beauty. I challenge you to accept yourself and make yourself happy, do things that makes you happy and you love what the world has to offer. I am only 20 years old, I have a lot more to learn about my self and accept myself.
The one thing that many of my friends applaud me for is my independence and myself love. All my friends who are relationship always tell that I am such an independent person and that if I had a boyfriend, it would be weird because they are so use to seeing me independent and able to do things and not care about what people have to say or impressing a boy. I think many girls try to find validation from guys to show them love. You DO NOT need a guy to show yourself that your love yourself. I have never had a serious relationship or boyfriend, so I always thought that there was something wrong with me or guys didn't find me pretty. But, I had to learn that in other for me be happy in a relationship in the future, I had to learn to love myself and that is what I have been doing. I know its weird for a 20 year like me not have a boyfriend, but I am happy with myself and I love myself that I do not need a man to make it happen, I get off being free - Pussycat Dolls, Don't Need a Man.
Listen to Love Myself by Hailee Steinfeld and I Don't Need a Man by Pussycat Dolls. These two songs are my anthem for loving myself and making my self happy and building my inner beauty, confidence and natural beauty.
Here is my life journey... (p.s. it starts for grade 7)
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| Grade 7 |
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| Grade 8 |
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| Grade 9 |
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| Grade 10 |
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| Grade 11 |
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| Grade 12 |
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| 1st Year |
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| 2nd Year |
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| 3rd Year..myself now |
My Favourites Quotes
I am going to share with you, my favourites quotes on loving yourself, inner beauty, confidence and natural beauty. Quotes that I lived by every day and read to myself every morning and night, because I know I am worth it.
Loving Yourself
Inner Beauty
Confidence
Natural Beauty
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