Your Beauty: Worried or Satisfied?

by Mercy Oluwadabirafunmi Amoo

The African woman is regarded as a beautiful personality. The universe believes that an average African is blessed with beauty.

My name is Mercy Amoo, but my friends call me Dabira (meaning, God has done me done wonders). I would like to share my journey on embracing the beautiful me.

Am I even beautiful?

You may be wondering and asking “What kind of question is this”?

Stay with me….

That was my habitual saying years ago…..

Being a tall, dark girl who uses glasses and a shy one at that.

I found it hard to believe that I was beautiful, don’t judge me, I know I was created in God’s likeness blah blah blah.

But I felt so inferior….

Did I add that I add that I have dark gums?

Oh yeah I do. That made me hate my smile and I never wanted to shine my teeth (which in Nigerian Pidgin English means ‘to smile widely’).

Pictures were a no, no, no for me.

I relied on Snapchat and amazing filters to do justice to my looks. I never took full pictures because I felt too tall in them. Some friends reading this will be surprised, because I’ve now become a picture freak.

This went on and on, until I took up a mentoring course with Debola Deji Kurunmi (DDK) at the Immerse Inner Circle and I can tell you that my orientation changed. I began to see myself in a different way.

Note: It didn’t happen in a day, it was a long way to even get here, but I’m grateful for every step of the journey.

One thing DDK emphasized on was:

Thoughts restructuring

I learnt that all of those sayings and questions happened in my mind, so I learnt to restructure my thoughts.

I learnt to reframe my inner voice daily. One thought at a time.

And it has made me say all the time that “I am beautiful”. In fact I now take pictures all the time, whether full length or portraits.

You may not be like me, but what’s that thing you don’t like about yourself? And you’re constantly speaking the negative about it? What are your thoughts about your image?

Dear African woman, I’d like you to start doing and saying positive things, in your words, your thoughts, in your actions because…

YOU are created in the likeness of God, and God doesn’t make mistakes. It is not a mistake that you are short, tall, dark, fair, smallish, huge, etc.

YOU are beautiful and YOU are creative.

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Nicknamed ‘Dabira the Creative’, I am a 200 Level student of European studies at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. My hobbies are reading, photography, writing and singing. I am also an active volunteer. Find me on Twitter @CreativeDabira.