00:00I celebrate black women every day. I listened to Shirley Horn this morning, Nancy Wilson,
00:06Olita Adams, and I am filled with joy and proud to be black.
00:17If this is Black Woman Appreciation Day, how would you celebrate it?
00:21By hugging everybody, by having champagne with everyone, by just reuniting.
00:27Yes, we have to celebrate each other. We have to lift each other.
00:30I think that's the beauty of our sisterhood, is that if you look good, I look good.
00:35I've celebrated me my whole life. I come from a long line of women who can't help but celebrate themselves every day
00:41and show people how they need to celebrate them and show people how you should treat them.
00:47So I've taught people my whole life how to treat me, and now I'm showing people on a wider scale,
00:51on a worldwide scale, how to treat me.
00:53I would start with the mothers. I think that before we become mothers, we come from a mother.
00:58And I think that's the essence of our existence. That is like the DNA of so much of our character and truly who we are.
01:07And I want to celebrate them. And then when we become them, I want to live up to that role.
01:11I would celebrate Black Woman Day by, I think, hanging out with all of the black women who have supported me in my journey.
01:19Now my mom and, you know, all the black women in my family.
01:21How do you celebrate black women as well as celebrating yourself?
01:25By listening to my fellow black woman. You know what I'm saying? A lot of times we're always a little too quiet,
01:31a little too okay with everything happening around us.
01:34But sometimes we need to create the space amongst ourselves to be really honest with what's going on
01:39and to celebrate another black woman by saying, I see you and I hear you.
01:43I celebrate black women every day by creating content that is for us, by us.
01:48And how do I celebrate me? By surrounding myself with people who are just full of love and light.
01:52I can celebrate us all year long as we deserve because we accomplish so much.
01:57And like there's nothing more empowering than being with your sisters and celebrating each other.
02:03I celebrate black women every day.
02:06I listened to Shirley Horne this morning, Nancy Wilson, Olita Adams, and I am filled with joy and proud to be black.
02:15When you hear Olita Adams hit one note and 18 notes come out of it, you just sit there and you're just glad to be black.
02:22I celebrate this day by taking it all in.
02:27I take in all the beauty. I take in the joy.
02:30I take in the appreciation for all the hard work.
02:33I celebrate myself by honoring myself, and I do that every day.
02:38I mean, and it was a hard-fought process.
02:40And if you're not taught to wake up and choose yourself, you often don't.
02:44You choose other people and other experiences over yourself because you don't know no better.
02:48But hey, when you get that thing, yeah, you honor yourself every single day by choosing yourself.
02:55Every now and then, send a flower to a random sister that I'm just like, I see you.
03:01I think that's important.
03:02I feel like I celebrate black women every day.
03:05I think about us all the time.
03:07And I just actively, whenever I'm thinking about somebody, like I text Daniel Brooks yesterday.
03:12Like whenever I'm thinking about somebody, I hit them up immediately.
03:17And, you know, I'm like self-care queen.
03:19Some of the challenges in womanhood, motherhood, is that you do have to make time to celebrate you.
03:25One of the things I try to do is, you know, go get to the spa, have a facial, or do nothing.
03:30You know what, I celebrate me by first working hard and living out my dreams and my purpose.
03:35But then we got to do the self-care, like take ourselves on vacations.
03:38I just got back from Mexico last night.
03:39I got a massage, I ate, I drank good.
03:42And, you know, sometimes you just have to hit that reset button and make sure that our self-care matches our hard work.
03:47You know, the first thing that popped in my head was celebrating other black women and celebrating with other black women.
03:52I have this core group of friends that we like make goals every month and just hold each other down.
03:58Like just a group of friends to lean on.
03:59I think that I don't celebrate my wins enough.
04:02I don't think that I celebrate the things that I've accomplished enough.
04:05I think I'm always like, oh, I could do a little bit more.
04:08But it's important to celebrate yourself.
04:09You have to.
04:09I'm living in an utopia, actually, in our office, Essence Headquarters.
04:14We celebrate black women every day.
04:17And I'm surrounded by amazing black women living with their passion.
04:21So it's just like a celebration already every day in my life.
04:24I celebrate my sisters and this is what is Essence.
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