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5 Words of Wisdom for Black Women

Disney Dreamers Executive Champion Tracey Powell
Disney Dreamers Executive Champion Tracey Powell

Steve Harvey, Essence magazine and Disney collaborated to deliver a boot camp for 100 deserving students, the Disney Dreamers Academy. The event took place in Orlando, Florida, and featured empowerment talks for the students and their parents. Here are some of the best words of advice delivered especially for women.
Bishop TD Jakes and Mikki Taylor

1.    Celebrate your beauty.
“Beauty is never trying to become someone else’s copy. It’s knowing that you are beautifully, fearfully made, and that He didn’t make a mistake when he made you; He was completely satisfied.  So you owe it to yourself to own your beauty and celebrate your own purpose.”
–Mikki Taylor, Essence
Lisa Nichols

2.    Become what you’re looking for in a mate.
“When I was ready to fall in love I had to fall in love with Lisa, I could not ask a man to love me more than I loved myself; or to honor me more than I was honoring myself. So first of all, I had to find out what’s important to me? So often we want partners to do things for us that we’re not willing to do for ourselves; or we want someone to fill in our gaps. A man is not designed to complete me. He wants to come into my life to complement my completeness. So I made a list of everything that I wanted in a man that came into my life, and then I became that list.”
–Lisa Nichols, Life Coach
Steve Harvey talks to parents.

3.    Look for substance in a relationship.
“You don’t need a man to want you. All a man has to do is look at you to want you; you want a man to CARE about you.”
–Steve Harvey
Essence magazine president Michelle Ebanks with Disney Dreamers

4.    Step outside of your comfort zone to get the life you want.
“You’re not always going to feel comfortable. If you always just look to feel comfortable, you probably won’t go very far to [pursue] what may really, ultimately, be important to you.”
–Michelle Ebanks, President, Essence Magazine and People Espanol
5.    Get your financial house in order.
“You make a big deal out of things that, later in life, you’ll find out are not important. And things that should be a priority, you ignore that–there you are with Gucci bags and no life insurance.”
–Bishop TD Jakes
All photos by Zondra Hughes for Real Times Media

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