Little girls have big dreams.

Well, while Kiera is off on her dream trip to Switzerland -much deserved (and I'm horribly jealous), I am holding down the she. fort. :) I want to talk about the little girl inside of us today. 

Do you remember when you were little and you thought you could be anything? Maybe you wore your mom's heels around and put on "fancy" clothes. Maybe you wanted to be a princess or a queen. Maybe you sat all of your dolls around and pretended to be a teacher.  Maybe you talked of being a singer or a doctor, or maybe both! As children, we have a much different view of the world and of ourselves.  

Do you ever notice how much confidence a 3 year old has? Listen to what a toddler says. They are full of love for others and themselves. They believe they are the most important person in the world, a sort of self-centeredness that isn't bad because I'm here to tell you something. You ARE the most important person in the world. That's not to say we shouldn't do for others, care for and love people fiercely and do everything we can to keep our loved ones, especially children, happy and safe. We should do all of those things. But, we shouldn't forget about ourselves in the process. How can the people around us be completely happy if we aren't?

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We shouldn't forget about those dreams we had as children or that way we believed in ourselves and our abilities 100%. Where do we lose that? We lose it by what people say to us, by what we hear others talk about, by the images and beliefs we see in the media. It makes us lose our faith that we can be anything and anyone we truly want to be. People start telling us early on that we aren't good enough, smart enough, pretty enough, fast enough, strong enough. Then, we start to tell that to ourselves. 

Let's go back to those toddlers. They have confidence in everything they do and say. That picture of a dog that looks like just a bunch of misshapen circles? They see a dog and think it's the best picture they've ever created. That is, until, someone tells them it doesn't look like a dog. Or they see Sarah's picture and hers "really looks like a dog".  Then, the self doubt comes in. The "I can't draw, I'm not good enough, I'm comparing myself to everyone now" doubt. And then, it spirals and becomes part of everything we do, worsening as we hit the awkward stages of puberty, continuing on to adulthood. Adulthood is where we really let other's opinions and the messed up beliefs about who and what we are cloud all we do. If we don't take the safe route and get a business degree, we may (gasp!) do something we are truly dreaming of. I took the safe route. I hated it. It worked out since I went to school for education and business, but it wasn't what I wanted to do. I wanted to have a creative job. It took me until 29 to gain the confidence to follow my dream and it has worked out in ways I couldn't imagine, at least not since I was that confident little girl. 

If we are overweight, instead of taking a stand to get healthy and feel good, we compare ourselves to others and get lost within ourselves. What we should really say is "I'm perfectly fine as I am and I will love the person I am while working to make myself the best version of ME that I can be".  If our hair isn't like a woman's hair in the shampoo commercial, or our eyes aren't the right color or our skin has wrinkles, we beat ourselves up. Why? We shouldn't want to be like the other people. We want to be US. We should wear our wrinkles like armor. They show we've lived. Some of our wrinkles show we smile and laugh a lot. What's wrong with that?

So, a sort of assignment for you all. Go back to that little girl, talk to her. Remember that feeling that you could be what you want to be and find a way to live it now, regardless of what anyone says or thinks. Second, pay attention to what you say and show to your daughters, nieces, cousins, etc. You'll notice we all do it. We have all of those beliefs we came to trust were real and we're handing them down. Instead, let's let them believe they can be anything, let them have strength, hope, and feel empowered. That's what life is all about. 

One last thing. Please consider buying a "she." t-shirt. You can click the "merchandise" link from our home page. Help us reach our goal of selling 50 by the 14th! Thank you!

XO
Nicole