Daughters

Tell your daughters to be brave and kind, not pretty and thin. Tell your daughters they can be anything they ever ever dream of being. Show them you will support them, always. Trust in their dreams, trust in their hopes (hope is the most important thing) and trust in the way they tell you these things. Teach your daughters to dance when they are sad, and when they are happy; to dance when they are alone or with a cute boy, in a room with strangers or with a group of friends they love. Teach your daughters to dance because their soul wants to, because suddenly their heart is singing. Teach your daughters that love is the most important thing. To give love, to see love, to know what the word really means, and to be everything they know about it.

Teach your daughters to love their bodies, when they are five and its delicate, when they are twelve and it's all kinds of different, when they are fifteen and it's not like their friends', when it's twenty three and they think they know it all. Teach your daughters to love the way it carries her through a room and into your arms, teach her to love the strength her body holds. Tell your daughter there is nothing more precious than loving herself, and knowing she holds all the magic in the world.

Tell your daughters that when the world says 'give up, that's not realistic', it's the first sign it will mean something. Tell your daughters to trust their hearts and be brave about following it, tell your daughters they can change the world. And tell them you will always be right next to them while they do.