Everybody remembers the January 12th earthquake that hit Haiti. Hundreds of thousands were killed. Many of my friends were very scared and worried. When I heard about the earthquake my Haitian friend was at my house. She worried about her baby cousins, grandfather and aunts and uncles. Many people rushed to help them. But now the world is pretending like it didn’t happen. As I was reading the New York Times today I read about the girls in Haiti getting abused, and how the shelters people made are falling apart, and how there is still not enough water.

Since this is women’s history month we should take this time to be like Harriet Tubman. No matter how big or terrible the problem of slavery was, she was always committed, never gave up, always paid attention, and was always brave. Right now for Haiti we can all do something. Why don’t you share your ideas about what we can do now to help Haiti!

Lately many things have bothered me, but what I am writing about today has especially bothered me. Many of my friends put themselves down, talk about how they wish they looked like a famous person, and how they don’t love themselves.

This bothers me because I hear too often about how they don’t like themselves. I feel like people should always appreciate themselves. Too many of us girls talk about how we could get a nose job or get weaves just like Mariah Carey or Beyonce. Many girls say this because that’s what’s put out into the world.

Our everyday singers, actresses and models have long weaves. Miley Cyrus, Beyonce, Naomi Campbell, Taylor Swift and Nicki Minaj are who we look at and say “I wanna look like her”. My mother told me that girls used to think about the good they could do for the community, not how “good” they should look, but this was long before videos.

Real beauty is what makes a person. Kindness, friendship, hard work, passion and faith is what makes everyone have real beauty. If you have faith in yourself everyone will have faith in you. Kindness is the key to friendship. Hard work is what you need to do anything. Anybody who wants to be a painter, teacher, veterinarian or poet, has to work hard and have passion. Passion is what makes you to be a better person. A better person is a more beautiful person.

Listen to the Children

Today my blog will be about adults listening to children more often. What makes me want to talk about this right now is that there was an incident in my fashion design class where a student threw an eraser at my eye. I then replied with great anger “I’m not a dog, I don’t fetch things.” My fashion design teacher yelled at me saying that I can’t say that. She was accusing me of being the bully to the other girl. I tried to explain to my teacher that she threw something at me but I was cut off. I walked out at the end of the class furious telling myself that I should never go back to that program again.
This was a pretty bad situation but not the worst.

At the charter school my mother took me out of, one administrator, for example regularly believed the class bully over some of the best students. The bully knew how to manipulate teachers and make them believe her. On the particular day I’m talking about, it was early in the school year and my friends and I were having our daily cheerleading practice. The bully goes over to the administrator Ms. Davidson and tells her that our cheerleading is inappropriate and that we were talking about her. That was all a lie. We tried to tell Ms. Davidson that she was wrong, but she didn’t believe us. She made me and my friends do a pyramid on the concrete as punishment. We were all wearing shorts or skirts so it was really embarrassing and it really hurt girls who were on the bottom row. More than a year later some of us were talking about how badly we were hurt by that incident and only then did we find out from my mom and my friend’s mom that what that woman was actually abuse. We started talking about how important it was for children to talk to and be heard by adults. In my house, sometimes my mom yells at me for something I didn’t do, but she always says I’m sorry when she listens to me and realizes she was wrong. So the outcome is that I always feel like I can always talk to my mom and I can always talk in my house. I would like to feel that everywhere.

To every adult who is reading this, please listen to every child. If it is a situation about choosing who’s right, listen to ALL the information before you judge!

To every child who is reading this, don’t be shy to tell someone, because you have a voice that everyone wants to hear.