I am not to be seen nor heard, but to be unnoticed and pushed into a corner.

I am not to be who I want to be, but to be who they’ve already planned for me.

I am the person that doesn’t know how to grow, but to be dependent on false beliefs.

To them I am merely a Black girl begging for a chance at something that was never even meant for me.

But that’s NOT who I am or ever will be!

I am Michelle Obama

I am Rosa Parks.

I am Harriet Tubman.

I am Hattie McDaniel.

I am Angela Davis.

I am Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

I am Waris Dirie.

But most of all I am…

ME.

And to every little Black girl that they told could never succeed, remember these words, “I am me and I will succeed despite what you think of me.”