Ok, check this out….Years ago my little cousins spent the night with my family.  At the time, my little cousins were about two  and five years old and I was about 13.  She and her brother spent the summer with my grandmother who lived close by. Therefore, we (the immediate family) saw them every day!  They were well aware of who each one of us was.  The following morning we decided to go swimming.  When my mother approached my little cousins as she was about to enter the pool, they looked at her and asked her…”What’s Your Name?”  Of course, we all looked at each other in confusion being that they know my mother well.  My mother then said, “It’s me!”  By now we’re explaining to my cousins that this is their Aunt but they weren’t convinced.  After going back and forth with them for a couple of minutes we realized that they didn’t recognize my mother because she did not have on her makeup and she also had on a swimming cap!  We all sat in shock, with our eyes bucked and mouths opened as we waited for my mom’s response.  She laughed until she cried.  We still laugh at that story today…What’s Your Name?

That same question can be asked to many of our black women today.  “What’s Your Name?”  Too many of us are not appreciating our true God given beauty.  We are constantly striving to emulate the world’s view of beauty depicted by our media and entertainment industry.  Most of us are not entertainers but we attempt to  present ourselves as if we are the flawless beings we see on TV, billboards and in magazines.  I guarantee you if we had professional stylist, trainers, make-up artists etc., we’ll be the Beyonce, Nikki Minaj, Kim K’s some of us try so desperately to imitate.  I often think of the episode of the Fresh Prince of Bel Air when Will Smith gets locked in a room with his date (Tisha Cambell) during an earthquake.  His date gets frustrated with all that “extra” getting in her way and she starts popping off her nails, pulling her weave out, and removing her eyelashes so she can be comfortable during her moment of distress.  The look on Will’s face was the same buck-eyed, jawdropping look that my cousins depicted when they saw my mother.

Is there anything wrong with enhancement? Of course not…  But why not just subtly enhance our natural beauty.  Must we go extreme with everything?! Rickey Smiley and his co-host touched on this topic during his morning show.  Rickey shared that he really liked his daughter’s new look.  He’d seen her with the “extras” but he liked this look the best.  Most men I’ve talked with about the “extras” would rather have a woman that enhances her natural beauty naturally.  However, as it was said on Rickey Smiley Morning Show, a lot of times women see that men are interested in a certain type of woman so that’s the look women go for even if it means going from one extreme to another.  I truly understand, we all have our insecure moments.  I really wish the media would stop selling this false sense of beauty to the world, the more “extras” the better.  Be You, Be Natural!!  Take it off!!  (the “extras” that is).   The next time you think about putting on that extra long weave, extra long lashes, extra extra make-up, and extra extra thick eyebrows, extra booty remember our goal is to not become the transformer but to stay as close to the natural you as possible. “What’s Your Name?”

Disclaimer:  Mom your beautiful with or without your make-up.  Kids will be kids! lol

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