00:00To be a black woman in the world is not always the easiest thing, as you all know.
00:07But I appreciate the fact that Essence has always made it very clear that we didn't have to be
00:14anybody else's idea of a black woman, that we were free to be us, regardless of who was trying
00:21to tell us who we were supposed to be. And that, for me, has made you, in my mind, always
00:29number one, Essence. I'm just telling you. And my mom and I bought the first issue because
00:35we heard there was going to be a magazine just for us. And it turned out it was just for us.
00:41And it was cute. We were cute. And we knew we were cute because we saw it. We saw that we were
00:48represented. And other black women were seeing, we were seeing each other. It was like getting a
00:54window into black women. And we saw each other. And so I can't do anything but say thank you so
01:01much. Thank you for this honor. Thank you for allowing me to be myself, even though it might
01:06have been a little strange sometimes. But, you know, that's life, right? I just thank you all so
01:11much. And I look forward to more time with all of you.
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