..... encouraging our little girls. (Beth P)

I think we all can agree this is a difficult culture for our little girls to grow up in and feel secure about how they look on the outside. And I know you cannot really separate that from who they are on the inside, but I don't think little girls understand that until they are older.
I want to tell you about how you can help them in a way that we often forget. We can start TELLING the little girls in our lives what we think about how they look.  I am not saying to gush over how pretty they are to the point that they think it is all that is valuable about them.  BUT I have to say, that we don't realize the impact our words as adult women can have on a little girl dealing with insecurity.
I still remember the exact moment and place that a woman I looked up to told me I was beautiful.  I was actually shocked. I was a chunky little sixth grade girl. She was my teacher. She cupped my cubby cheeks in her hands and said with all her heart, "you're beautiful!" It didn't matter that she was a very large woman, she had a heart to match her size and she was beautiful to me.

I did not feel pretty.  I didn't know I was beautiful.  I didn't hate myself,  I just didn't know I could be seen as beautiful.  (Yes, I knew that my mother saw me that way but it is different when it's your moma!)

Oprah tells a similar story of the moment someone, a teacher, I think, told her she was "pretty as a speckled pup".  It was a big moment in her young life. 

YOU can create a special moment in the life of a little girl who just doesn't know that she can be beautiful.  YOU can even go further and tell her that it comes from the inside out. You can cup her chubby cheeks and tell her that she is very very special and why.  She may skip away seemingly un-phased.  But know that she might remember that moment, the moment she found out she could be beautiful.