Birthmark
Her twin sister had the luck of having a birth mark. It was located on her left knee and looked like a splatter of black paint that just never seemed to go away. She always noticed it, but always wondered why no one else did. It seemed as if her imperfections were always put on the spot, while her twin sister’s disappeared.
Thighs
Walking sticks or thunder thighs. If muscles are not seen you are not the goal. Cellulite forms under the butt cheeks being visible during the summertime high heat season. But dance team was always her main struggle regarding her thighs, especially when it came time to order uniforms. Medium was her size, but her thickness upgraded her to a large. Every practice, every performance, she spent eight counts between dance moves pulling down her tight spandex performance costumes. She loved her thighs, but oh how they made her stand out from the other girls. Let it be known, she was not the only team member in this category of thickness, but she just wanted to be like the majority.
Stretch Marks
Every Sunday morning church is the first thing on the agenda. Rushing to find a bottle of lotion she runs down the hallway and busts open her mother’s bedroom door. Her mother only has underwear on. As the girl stares at her mother, in a non-creepy way, she notices the stretch marks around her hip to thigh area. She has a flashback to an Instagram meme she saw regarding stretch marks saying “Black women, be proud of your stripes.”
Hips
Shakira never made it clear what it meant when her hips didn’t lie. The girl just assumed it meant you couldn’t hide what was there. Over the years she became flattered by her lower body, even when her favorite rapper Drake said in a song “hips all on 45, waist all on 24.” It gave her some sort of relief that a man she could only dream of being her husband was fond of a figure like hers.
Caesarean Section Cut
October 4th, 1995. New Orleans, Louisiana. East Jefferson General Hospital.
Doctor: “Mrs. Sloan, you are bleeding profusely and may not live after delivering your twin girls.”
Stomach
They tell you what an acceptable weight is, so you do anything to achieve it. Scales rip apart self-esteem and confidence. Eating disorders become more common than breathing. Throughout her high school life she had all types of friends. Skinny friends, fat friends, tall friends, short friends. Friendship wasn’t determined on the size of your stomach. Then she attended her first Photoshop class. The teacher Ms. Kemnitz began with a brief summary of the course, then they hopped right into their first lesson. By the end of the week, she had already learned how to take a photo of what your regular stomach looked like and be able to nip, stuck, and delete all the baggage and extra weight you did not want to see. Her daily lifestyle now revolves around shifting herself into a waste trimmer and partaking in water diets.
Teeth
Get your teeth fixed while you’re young because your future determines it. If they are not as white as milk and straight as a pencil they would rather not see it. A smile is everything. Dentures, braces, invisalign. New inventions come into play to fixate the dental damage. Everyone in her fifth grade class had them. All her classmates would talk about what color rubber bands they were getting next. She started to want them even more than she needed them. When it was her turn to get braces she was so excited. Every day her teeth formed into a straighter line under the metal stretching across both ends in her mouth. And soon enough it was time for them to be taken off. Now as an adult she can remember these days so clearly, especially because of what society’s definition of perfect teeth are. Every time she thinks about not wearing her clear retainer she notices her smile has been made crooked once again.
Lips
Eighteen Year Old, Kylie Jenner.
Eyebrows
The logic behind someone using pencils, originally invented for a classroom/office; Now used to draw on their face.
Eyes
Her annual appointments to the eye doctor had to be the most dreaded day of every August. In her mind she knew Dr. Fong’s results would have him saying, “Your prescription has increased.” As he continued to read out fancy eye doctor terminology to her mother, all she could think about was one: another year of no colored contacts; two: get ready to find the insurance that can cover the most; and three: be prepared to look for grandma frames that won’t make her lenses look so thick.
Face
The face, such a fragile yet attention grabbing object. The first thing about a human being that captures their attention is the look they share. It brought her so much sorrow. The round black spots, splattered in no particular pattern around her cheeks and forehead. One day a family member asked her if she even washes her face, but little did they know the bathroom was her most common place. Every time she stepped in the bathroom she would stand in front the mirror, lean over the sink, and begin to rub her hands over her face that felt like a popcorn ceiling. Efforts to fix her acne by constantly spending money to purchase products that had no one hundred percent guarantee of working. It seemed as if the face was going through its own unchangeable phase of life. Happiness, sadness, loneliness… emotions portrayed all through one part of the body.
Kayla Anise Sloan is a junior at Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia where she studies Business Management and Economics. She was born in New Orleans, Louisiana and in 2005 was relocated to Houston, Texas after Hurricane Katrina destroyed her home. Along with engaging in community service, Kayla enjoys exploring the city of Atlanta. She currently holds the reign of Miss Phi Beta Sigma at Morehouse College and will eventually be as bad as Queen Bey.
