Are You Creating to Inspire Or For Hire?
"I don't want to be the only one." I tell myself that daily. I started my blog initially to highlight my family and others that were doing things that I didn't see showcased often, but I knew existed in families of color. I wanted to show how black girls from the inner city garden, eat healthy, raise their children with morals and education and aren't just twerking on social media for likes.
I know so many amazing women of color who are doing the exact same thing I'm doing. I actually know more who are than who aren't. For those that aren't, I wanted to show them a different way of living, a different way of appreciating their culture while manifesting greatness for their families and children. Sometimes when you grow up in the inner city, something as simple as eating healthy seems far fetched with the convenience of corner stores full of chips, soda and sugar on every street. School lunches made with unrecognizable ingredients and free food from the government that isn't fit for a dog to eat. Everything that is readily available is trash or poison for your body. I understand the correlation between eating habits and a person's emotional stability, behavior problems, and ability to focus. I wanted to share what I learned from my mom and aunts and the community I grew up in. I was blessed to grow up in an inner city that created a community of black people that wanted better. They had book stores, after school programs, community gardens and more.
I love the complexity and diversity of my culture, of all cultures for that matter. However, real food and proper education should not be something that is dependent upon the color of your skin. There are so many unsung heroes who create programs that assist lower income families. I've always identified with those people. They may never end up at a Black Girls Rock award show or get an article in Essence magazine, but the influence and impact they have on every day people is monumental. There is nothing wrong with wanting to be famous, although I think most people want to be famous because they want to have financial stability and that should be the ultimate goal. There is something wrong with creating things of good and getting mad when you see other people doing it. Now of course as a creative, I would love to always get credit for something I influenced. However what makes me most happy is knowing that I'm influencing people in a positive way. I made this blog to share; to share growth, love, happiness, and health. Maybe somebody will read it, get inspired and make it farther than me. What matters most is that someone is then sharing more love and positivity in this world and touching more people than I can.
I use to get frustrated with not being featured on some of my favorite blogs or magazines. However, I don't create for that reason and I never have. Which is why I created my own website, so that I could share and contribute to this world as frequently as possible. It doesn't matter if you have 10 or 100 readers. What matters is you creating content that will help or heal those 10 to 100 readers. So many amazing women came before me in my community. Women who made jewelry and natural hair care products. Women who made skin care products and shared their freshly grown food with neighbors. These people did it because they wanted to see their community made better, not because they wanted likes or to be the most popular "soulful, poetry writing, vegan, hippie, self sustained, love child." They did it because they were blessed with a talent and simply shared it to help make the world a little better. They influenced me and now I'm able to create and share the things I learned and it has reached a bigger scale. Hopefully the people I influence will reach an even bigger scale.
My greatest goal is not to create so that everyone thinks I'm great and to become the richest woman on the planet. It's to create things that will truly help not just my community, but the people surrounding it. Then maybe someone who thought interracial relationships were bad will be more open minded. Someone who thought black girls were trash will see our beauty. Someone who thought Muslims were violent will see how we truly move with peace in our hearts. I want to share with the world the truth. Not so some brand can hire me and then I can feel validated as an artist or human. More than anything, I do this for the people who know me, were introduced to me, or heard of me will walk away feeling inspired to live their own truths. To love more freely, openly, and accept those that are different. Hopefully I inspire someone to follow their own dreams and to go as far as they possibly can with them.
I want to see more women eating healthy, more diverse children's books, more couples being honest and open with their love. More parents taking their child's education into their own hands and more people spreading love. I don't ever want to be the only one because I create to inspire.
We were born to create, love and empower; and that only happens if we allow others to shine just as bright as us.
God bless.