Featuring: Gwen Thomas
January 15, 2010 – 12:25 am | 5 Comments

  
 Gwen Thomas of Vacav­ille, CA.  Gwen is a 19-year old, soon-to-be, first year col­lege stu­dent.  I first encoun­tered this young woman through read­ing her blog Per­ma­nent Issues — with a cap­tion that says a mouthful…“i’m …

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From the Editor »

Message from the Editor

Wel­come back for the 2nd issue of Baby­girlz Mag­a­zine.  March 7, 2010, was the offi­cial launch date, and keep­ing in line with lucky num­ber 7, here we are, yet again! 

As of right now, a bi-monthly pub­li­ca­tion, is being deliv­ered; this month, how­ever, we will mon­i­tor the site to see if a quar­terly release would be more effec­tive.  Should we take the quar­terly route, new con­tent would be pub­lished four times, yearly – every three months.  We will def­i­nitely, keep you posted.    

 If you stopped by dur­ing our offi­cial launch in March, then you notice that we now have a new inter­face – accom­pa­nied by the orig­i­nal tagline “Growth Beyond Bound­aries” because we believe that there is growth beyond bound­aries – those set by you, as well as the ones often set by soci­ety.  The key is to: Be thank­ful, give 100%, in all that you take on, always have faith in your­self, make healthy choices about those you allow in your cir­cle, believe that you can do any­thing you set your mind to, and have no fear of explor­ing your greatness. 

With great­ness in mind, take a moment to stop by Dawn Williams’ “His­tor­i­cal Hot Mama” page.  Dawn is in the begin­ning stages of com­pil­ing a port­fo­lio of GREAT women with AMAZING his­tory, that you can be proud of.   See exactly why you were cre­ated to sur­vive, and des­tined to thrive!

Included In This Issue:

Three El Cer­rito High School stu­dents con­tributed with sto­ries of life, and life lessons:  Tacreisha Chawn­tae Carter pro­vides a les­son on mat­ters of the heart and how young women should never allow mis­treat­ment, at the hands of another.  Erika Benton-Martin, shares insight on the impor­tance of first impres­sions and how they can work both for you…and against you.  Finally, Tyler Clark, can­didly shares with you a time in life where she made the wrong choices in friend­ships, and how she had to regain the trust of her mother because of it.  “Thank you, girlz!”     

Wel­come & Enjoy!

Traci L. Lee, Editor-in-Chief

General »

Take Back Your Virginity

Many of us have been there. Regret­ting the time we lost our vir­gin­ity. Regret­ting the per­son who we lost it to…the sur­round­ing circumstances…everything. But in that moment of ner­vous cop­u­la­tion, we cross over to another world, and we can never go back. Or can we? The answer is yes. Yes, you CAN take back your virginity!

Through­out my years of being a youth men­tor, I’ve come across a num­ber of teenage girls who har­bored guilt, shame and regret over los­ing their vir­gin­ity. Some told of instances where the expe­ri­ence was not at all plea­sur­able, and to top it off, the guy involved told all his friends. Now the girl feels embar­rassed, and she can’t even say that she enjoyed los­ing her vir­gin­ity. When the next guy shows inter­est in her, she’s guarded. She decides not to have sex with him. But sur­pris­ingly, he throws the past in her face, “You can have sex with him, but you can’t have it with me?” She reluc­tantly gives in. Here begins a ter­ri­ble cycle. A cycle of objec­ti­fy­ing one­self based on the wants of guys…complying with sex because, “I’ve already done it, every­one knows, I may as well keep doing it” or “It makes the boys like me.” Don’t be caught in this tan­gled web of self-destruction. It can only lead to lack of self-confidence and emo­tional dis­tress. Allow­ing sex into your life is already an emo­tional feat. You are in no con­di­tion to con­tinue to be faced with life­long, adult issues. Remem­ber, sex can lead to more per­ma­nent things, such as preg­nancy or sex­u­ally trans­mit­ted dis­eases and infections.

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Message from the Editor Message from the Editor

Wel­come back for the 2nd issue of Baby­girlz Mag­a­zine.  March 7, 2010, was the offi­cial launch date, and keep­ing in line with lucky num­ber 7, here we are, yet again! 
As of right now, a bi-monthly publication, …

Social Networking: The New Fav Social Networking: The New Fav

The Unsu­per­vised Play­ground
Social net­work­ing is tak­ing over the world, it seems.  Often referred to as the 24/7 Dig­i­tal World because it never sleeps, and is acces­si­ble from anywhere…at any time of the day.  In the …

Learning from “Nature” Learning from “Nature”

T.K. Jar­rels, resides in Oak­land, CA — by way of Cincin­nati, OH.  She is bio­log­i­cal Mama to 3 (though affec­tion­ately called “Mama”, by many more), and proud Grand­Mama, of 4.  Her arti­cle con­tri­bu­tion was inspired by …

Love is Blind…At times Love is Blind…At times

Pic­ture this:
You have a boyfriend, but he talks to you like a dog. He doesn’t treat you in ways that say “I care”. He doesn’t make you feel spe­cial; yet you are just happy know­ing that …

The Politics of Education The Politics of Education

ed·u·cate  (j-kt)  –To pro­vide with knowl­edge or train­ing in a par­tic­u­lar area for a par­tic­u­lar pur­pose–
With the aver­age teenager under con­stant bom­bard­ment of pro-education slo­gans like “knowl­edge is power” and “an edu­ca­tion is the key …

First impression…is a Lasting impression First impression…is a Lasting impression

My mother taught me that “A first impres­sion, can be a last­ing impression”, right before I hit my teenage years.  Ever since, I have tried to keep it in mind.  She also taught me to “act like a …

The Art of Friendship The Art of Friendship

Whether we have friends that come into our lives early on, or friend­ships that we make along the way, every­body has some that don’t always make the right deci­sions.  If we choose to be in …

The Importance of Sisterhood The Importance of Sisterhood

 

By Bar­bara Henry
The con­cept of Sis­ter­hood is prob­a­bly one of the most con­fus­ing amongst black women and girls.  Not because the con­cept is for­eign to us, but because, more often than not, we are bom­barded with …

How do you define your beauty? How do you define your beauty?

Have you ever been made to feel that your “look” is less-than what is deemed beau­ti­ful?  Have you ever looked at another girl and defined your own beauty based on her phys­i­cal appear­ance?  Have you …

3 Fresh Spring Beauty Trends 3 Fresh Spring Beauty Trends

Spring is here and its time to put your fresh in over­drive!  Check out these three hot trends that will keep you pretty and fly at the same time. 
1.       Make it Hot…Pink
A splash of pink on …