I heard the song, “Beautiful Flower,” by India.Arie and it moved me. It lifted, listened, and soothed me. India wrote this song for the girls at Oprah Winfrey’s Leadership Academy in Africa, but she also wrote it for me. For the eleven year old fierce me. For the fifteen year old embarrassed me. For the seventeen year old dreamer me. For the nineteen year old shaken me … It spoke to every moment of me.

I listened to this very simple song and heard what I needed to hear as a little girl, as a young woman, and what I feel I should not still need to hear as a happy grown woman, but somehow do.

It speaks to my mother, “you are powerful like a fire.”

It speaks to my grandmother, “more valuable than a diamond.”

It speaks to my teenage cousin, who “feels like she is not special because she don’t look like a supermodel coke bottle.”

To my friend, to my sister, to my six year old niece.

India spoke to herself too.

We are all that girl.

We all need to be reminded that “there is nothing in the world that you cannot do, when you believe in you.”

My female teenage cousins need to hear that “the next time the radio tells you to shake your moneymaker, shake your head and tell them, tell them you’re a leader!”

They need to hear it. They need to feel it. We all need to sing along.

 Who are beautiful—yeah you.

Who are brilliant—yeah you.

Who are powerful—yeah you.

Who are resilient—yeah you.