Black, Beautiful, and Creatively Empowered

Girls, you are transitioning from childhood into adolescence. Many changes will occur in your life. Your body will begin to change; there will be physical changes, like your breasts, which will begin to develop. Menstruation can start when you begin puberty (the period in which the human body becomes capable of reproduction). You will go through social, emotional, and cognitive (thinking and making decisions about the right things to do and say) changes. When I think about a beautiful butterfly, it reminds me of the changes adolescent girls go through. The butterfly goes through a metamorphosis; this is the magic that insects teach us—that change ensures growth. “We delight in the beauty of the butterfly but rarely realize the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty” (Maya Angelou).