Being a Black woman myself, I know the importance of speaking life into Black little girls at an early age.

And when I birthed my own, I knew I couldn’t waste time and soon began teaching her lessons about self-love, self-esteem, appreciating her uniqueness and affirming herself.

That’s why over the past four months every morning (or night, depending on how the day goes), I read an ABC baby affirmation to my daughter Faren!

I found these ABC affirmation cards on Twitter a few months ago and knew I had to have them. Not only do the cards, promote her learning the alphabet and new words, they also teach her how to love on the unique parts of her being; her hair, her skin, her mind, her abilities and strengths.

And the fact that each card has a little Black girl on it, is a great start to letting her see herself in characters that look like her, because representation matters.

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I was getting such a fun, engaged reaction from her, that I decided to share our affirmation routine with my Instagram audience every day. Even though the affirmations are intended for the kiddies, some of my adult followers have commented that they look forward to the IG stories and use the affirmations in their daily lives.

And I get it.

Even I read the daily affirmation aloud for myself. Sometimes, as adults, we too need to be reminded of our greatness, our kindness, our amazing abilities. There’s something real special about continually speaking to the child in us, even when we’re grown up.

I’ve truly seen a huge difference from day one to now in Faren’s interest and excitement for the cards.

The minute she sees me reaching for the stack, she flashes a huge grin and gives a hearty laugh. As I’m reading the card to her, she anxiously pulls for it and points at the little girl, whose hair looks like her hair, whose lips are shaped like her lips and whose skin sparkles in the sun like her skin does.

I could see a boost in her confidence levels, she’s trying to read the words on the cards, she’s identifying with the Black little girl who she thinks is her friend and I think in years to come, we’ll see these affirmations play out in the form of a self-aware, strong but humble, confident, unbreakable and beautiful Black woman.

I know that’s right!

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