Tell Your Daughters How Beautiful You Are

We read laments all the time about how our society places so much emphasis on female appearance that women -and girls- never feel pretty enough. As much as the world around us may be to blame, Amanda King, in a guest post at Offbeat Mama, decided to take matters into her own hands, as far as setting an example for her daughters.

I don't want my girls to be children who are perfect and then, when they start to feel like women, they remember how I thought of myself as ugly and so they will be ugly too. They will get older and their breasts will lose their shape and they will hate their bodies, because that's what women do. That's what mommy did. I want them to become women who remember me modeling impossible beauty. Modeling beauty in the face of a mean world, a scary world, a world where we don't know what to make of ourselves.

"Look at me, girls!" I say to them. "Look at how beautiful I am. I feel really beautiful, today."

I see it behind their eyes, the calculating and impression. I see it behind their shining brown eyes, how glad they are that I believe I am beautiful. They love me. To them, I am love and guidance and warm, soft blankets and early mornings. They have never doubted how wonderful I am. They have never doubted my beauty. How confusing it must have been for them to see me furrowing my brow in the mirror and sucking in my stomach and sighing.

No matter what the rest of the world tells them, parents remain a child's most lasting influence. Read the rest of the essay; it will make you smile and feel beautiful. Link -via Metafilter

(Image credit: Flickr user Gustavo Devito)