There's something tender about realizing that some of the Black girls we watched on television aren't girls anymore. Neither are we. Kim Fields.
There’s something tender about realizing that some of the Black girls we watched on television aren’t girls anymore.
Neither are we.
Kim Fields.
Janet Jackson.
Regina King.
Keshia Knight Pulliam.
Tatyana Ali.
Brandy.
Raven-Symoné.
Kyla Pratt.
We watched some of them grow.
And without realizing it, we were growing too.
Their hairstyles changed.
So did ours.
Their voices matured.
So did ours.
The little television in the family room became a flat screen.
The children watching became mothers, aunties, teachers, doctors, artists, caregivers, entrepreneurs, grandmothers and women with stories of their own.
That may be one reason nostalgia can feel so tender.
Sometimes we aren’t simply missing an old television show.
We are remembering ourselves.
SURVIVOR AFFIRMATION:
I honor every version of the woman I have been.
The little girl.
The teenager.
The young woman figuring things out.
The woman who survived things nobody watching her could see.
The woman I am today.
None of those versions embarrasses me.
I carry them with tenderness.
REFLECTION:
What television show immediately takes you back to a particular room, house or person from your childhood?
May the memories that find you today remind you not only of where you’ve been, but of how beautifully you kept becoming.
