I had a baby

For the last few months I keep running into metaphors related to having babies. If you know me, you know having babies is the absolute last thing on my radar at the moment so the fact this keeps happening to me is out of control. A few months ago I called my mom complaining about feeling stuck and she told me "life is like giving birth, you usually don't just slide a baby out but you go through contractions. Each hard stage of life is a contraction to birthing something new."  That advice soothed me, it made sense. 

Fast forward and I attend an event where my fav Melina Matsoukas is speaking moderated by Issa Rae. There were a couple of questions where Melina used a metaphor related to giving birth in regardless of birthing something new in her career.

Again – that giving birth thing.

Last night I went to church and heard TD Jakes speak, guess what he said? He spoke about the exact metaphor my mom did, about birthing new lives and taking the labor that comes with it. Before hearing him speak I thought about pushing the release date because of the remaining items on my to-do list. But after hearing about pushing babies out for the third time I decided to go for it. 

So here I am, with a new born. 

I've talked about creating a pin line for at least two years now. I've drooled over countless shops and thought about all the pins I could make. I've also noticed the abundance of pins related to black pop culture but none of the shop owners look like me. One day I just said F#%* it decided to go for it. 

For the first pin I wanted something that would make a literal statement and be 100% unapologetic. Most of my friends have experienced people sticking their unwanted greasy hands in our hair – whether that be because of the natural curls, the overnight box braids, or just because its long. If you've been under a rock Solange made a whole song about it. This pin is an expression, one for my girls of color and beyond (because I can't lie, some of my white friend’s experience this too LOL)

As small as it may seem releasing this to the world is scary as hell. At this very moment I'm wondering what I forgot to do or wishing I wouldn't have stayed in bed watching bad reality shows the other day instead of working. On the flip side I'm reminded that everything is about growth and I won't have all the answers. But putting myself out there is the first step.

I also don't know what having a baby is like, but I feel like I just produced a new life. 

So shop, enjoy, tell everybody you know. I'm already creating the next pin so stay tuned!