Growing up, I learned that if you were a black girl with a wide nose, full lips, dark skin, nappy hair—you were doomed. At 8 years old, I knew how to turn my parents’ bedroom into my music video sanctuary. It was easy: They had all of the necessary equipment to fuel my young imagination. […]
When girls grow comfortable in their own ability to express themselves, they can better manage the societal pressure to make sure others are comfortable. It’s trippy how undecided adults can be about younger children and self-expression, particularly when it comes to young girls. Adding my own personal and professional focus on radical self-expression to the mix makes […]
From the outside, I may not look like someone who’d be littered with permanent skulls and bats under her conventional exterior. But my body art is an expression of who I once was and who I still am. Once upon a time, as I found myself maneuvering through an especially thorny patch of my adolescence, during which […]
This originally appeared on Everyday Feminism. Republished here with permission. I want for my daughters the same thing I want for myself: radical self-expression. Three years ago, my husband Kris and I took our final step toward a longtime goal of embracing a location-independent lifestyle. We sold most of our stuff, withdrew our daughters from […]
