From The Inside Out

Happy Birth-day, little Prince;
welcome to the world.
What a special time for the Royal family.
{How happy Diana would have been.}

Today I'm wondering what it's like to be royalty ...
and I'm thinking about self-worth and self-esteem.
Have you seen this book yet?

 What exactly makes someone beautiful anyway?
And who gets to decide that?

In Does This Make Me Beautiful? by Harriet Morse, 
a young Harriet gets invited to Caitlyn's house and 
she's understandably on top of the world because 
Caitlyn is a popular girl with whom 
Harriet has always wanted to play.

During their time together, the conversation turns to beauty, the outward kind, beautiful like the models on the posters that Caitlyn has all over her walls. After they decide that Caitlyn even looks like one of them with their "shiny hair" and their perfect clothes, Harriet asks if she looks like any of them, to which Caitlyn responds, "No, you have red hair and a ton of freckles ... But it's okay, Harriet, you're nice." Ouch, right? Well, okay, maybe not, 'cause I'd choose nice over pretty, but Harriet did not take that comment as a compliment. In fact, it kind of upsets her nice world.

As Harriet struggles to find something, anything at home to wear that will make her prettier, like the girl on the poster that Caitlyn gave her, her mom comes in and, with the help of Grandma Ruby's mystical mirror, helps Harriet see that her true beauty comes from her heart. 

I couldn't help but notice that in this book, the mom doesn't solve Harriet's problem, but, after helping her process her thoughts, instead gives her a tool and helps her arrive at her own conclusion.

Read this treasure aloud with your young princes and princesses, 

then share this Britt Nicole gem - Gold.

Of course there's a fine line between building up kids with superficial, empty praise and authentically empowering them with your
 unconditional affirmation and love. 

If you ever need help in this area, you can visit my 

go-to parenting experts Michele Borba or Bill Corbett.

When we love our children, really love them, for who they are and not for how they look or what they can accomplish, then their self-worth is nurtured in such a way that inner beauty will trump outward riches. Every time. 

And when they can accept that they're 

worth more than gold

 and when they value themselves, 

then healthy self-esteem will follow and

 they'll be more likely to serve others. 

Mental health can be built, 
and that's done most successfully when it's from 

from the inside out.