⭐️✨😊✨⭐️ • #TBT #Warning: Long Read (Sorry @Instagram jumbles my paragraphs together...some of them...😒) In Fall of 1996 I was voted #Homecoming #Queen at my high school. Just before the start of that school year, my whole world began to fall apart leaving just my mother and me to make ends meet (Find details in my #memoir, #DramasOfABaldHeadQueen😉). After finding out that my peers had voted for me, my excitement was quickly overshadowed by the truth that my mother couldn't afford to buy me a new dress to wear to accept my crown. • We headed to what was literally called 'The $5 Store' to buy something to wear that evening and this white blouse and black skirt are what I settled on (the shoes were some horrible mess from Payless. Lol). I've never really been "into" fashion and recall feeling inadequate, not because of what I had to wear but because there was nothing that I could do to change my circumstance. • But I was reminded by a mentor that I could change the outcome of the circumstances by changing my attitude. I can honestly say that the smile in this picture is genuine. I had the best time and by the grace of God felt just as beautiful as I would have had I been in a new dress. • Somewhere along the line I was reminded that my confidence is what makes me beautiful. I was reminded that my beauty is within, regardless of what I wore that night or ever. • Later that year I was also voted #BestDressed in my school. I still didn't have the flyest clothes or new #namebrand anything in my closet. I remember being STUNNED when I learned that my peers had once again voted for me in this manner. • It was continuously made clear to me that *whatever* I choose to wear must be worn with CONFIDENCE or else, none of it mattered anyway. #iRockConfidence #ModelingBeyondBeauty #BeInspired #BEAM #WeBeTheLight #LightBegetsLight #TWA #NaturalHair #Naturalista #Natural (at Wichita, Kansas)