Taken from Jada Pinkett Smith's facebook,

A letter to a friend…

This subject is old but I have never answered it in its entirety. And even with this post it will remain incomplete.

The question why I would LET Willow cut her hair. First the LET must be challenged. This is a world where women, girls are constantly reminded that they don’t belong to themselves; that their bodies are not their own, nor their power or self determination. I made a promise to endow my little girl with the power to always know that her body, spirit and her mind are HER domain. Willow cut her hair because her beauty, her value, her worth is not measured by the length of her hair. It’s also a statement that claims that even little girls have the RIGHT to own themselves and should not be a slave to even their mother’s deepest insecurities, hopes and desires. Even little girls should not be a slave to the preconceived ideas of what a culture believes a little girl should be.

More to come. Another day.

J

It's about time mothers as a whole start standing up for the rights of their daughters like this. I was never taught that I owned myself. I've always found myself at the mercy of other people and what they wanted me to be. It's so dangerous. If I had truly understood that my body and my mind were my own, I wouldn't have been abused so many times. It took me way too long to develop a sense of self worth and the damage I suffered along the way is taking years to heal. If you care about the people in your life, girls aren't the only ones who need to understand this, you will teach them to live their lives on their own terms. You know, as long as they aren't hurting anyone.