All that Glitters in the Queendom

Taking a quick break from Blood Donor Advocacy, I was honored to be a part of the Queendom T.E.A. crowning ceremony this past weekend.

I was invited by a positively inspiring friend, LaQuisha Hall, to be the Keynote Speaker for the ceremony. The purpose of Queendom T.E.A is to assist teenage girls with building self-confidence, developing their etiquette knowledge and recognizing the value of giving back to their community.

As a survivor of sexual abuse with 6 years of teaching experience in the Baltimore County School System, LaQuisha developed an understanding and familiarity with the pressures that teenage girls are challenged with. She created the Queendom as a way to be a mentor and provide a strong, evolving moral support system.

Some of the ladies have been in the program for 3 years now and are maturing into beautiful community members with a definitive purpose in their life. During this ceremony, they received crowns as a sign of their achievement and contributions to their group and communities.

Queendom is also supported by Stop the Silence - Stop Child Sexual Abuse and many other local businesses and partners. The Queendom is growing and influencing lives everyday - which is exactly why I was so excited and feel blessed to have been a part of the crowning ceremony.

As a facilitator for the Campaign for Real Beauty, I have witnessed and experienced low self-esteem in young girls - with active and encouraging mentors involved, young girls can grow up knowing that it's not about looks - but is about heart, character, personal conviction, and confidence.

As a mom, I hope that when my daughter is older there continues to be programs, like Queendom, that will strive to support girls in a world that is driven by appearance instead of character.

As a woman, I hope that girls grow up understanding that what appears on the pages of magazines or on TV is not a vision of what they should look like - it's just TV and it's just a magazine. Look to your mothers, mentors, influential women, etc for those role models - for they will show you that the power of the mind and the character of the heart are more beautiful than any picture in a magazine.



(Pictured above - w/LaQuisha Hall accepting appreciation award and with Angel McCoy, Mrs. MD International 2010, who was in attendance as a volunteer)