Gabrielle Union wants to teach her kids to embrace self-love. The celebrity recently wrote an op-ed piece for ELLE’s “The State Of Black Beauty” series in which Gabrielle advocated for diversity that includes her kids celebrating their Blackness.
“I don’t think I fell back in love with myself until relatively recently, and some of that self-love has come from learning to embrace my natural beauty, especially my hair texture,” Union wrote in her piece. “Something happened around my 40s where I just fell in love with myself,” the celebrity mom shared. “I emptied my basket of f*cks. And that’s the attitude I hope to pass onto my daughters—shameless self-love.”
Gabrielle Union did not deny the fact that society often tries to reshape what is misunderstood. “We very much push assimilation in this country,” the actress wrote. “[We’re] not about standing out, having your own identity, or your own look,” Union said.
“What I’m trying to do with our two daughters is understand that if I cannot provide a school environment that is as diverse as the global population, I have to do more to constantly make sure the girls are reaffirmed,” the celebrity said of what she hopes to pass on to Zaya and Kaavia James.
“It’s not just enough to hand them a magazine or a book or watching Black Is King on a loop,” Union wrote in her op-ed. “We have to surround them with additional teachers they may not see at school,” the celebrity mom added. “It becomes another job. Part of that is constantly reaffirming their Blackness outside of them so they can constantly see themselves in the flesh, mirroring what we’re teaching at home.”
Gabrielle Union and her husband, Dwyane Wade, parent four kids in all. You can read all the op-ed contributions in ELLE’s “The State Of Black Beauty” series here!
Photo: Gabrielle Union/Instagram
