Mothers do you tell your daughters that they are beautiful? Do you tell yourself? Out loud? Believe it or not, what you tell yourself in the morning is sending a powerful message to your daughters. For a moment think about how you greet yourself when you look in the mirror each morning or take note of the kind of comments are you making when you catch a glance of yourself in the hallway mirror or as you leave to drop them off at school? Maybe you already know or it may surprise you. Do you ever hear your daughters telling themselves the same thing?

Looking at this mother and daughter what are your first thoughts? They are beautiful, right? But, like so many others, they don’t think they are beautiful in the morning. Why can’t they see what I see? It drives me crazy! Well, I have the pictures to prove it…

Meet Annie and Lexi

Mother and daughter

Both like to hide in the morning

And this is their bedhead…

Annie is a rockstar in the morning! Look at that awesome bedhead!

And Lexi is a sleeping beauty! But when I showed her this little radiant picture  I was a little taken back.

For a moment I saw a look in Lexi’s eyes saying something to the effect of, “I look pretty,” then suddenly she said out loud, “Oh, I look so ugly,” while covering her eyes with her hands like she couldn’t bear to look at the picture anymore. What? I was shocked! She’s only 10!

Then when I showed Annie a picture of her that I thought caught the light so beautifully she looked right past the beauty I saw and pointed out the bridge of her nose that she doesn’t like! That was the very feature I thought was most beautiful. How often we pick apart ourselves and our {im}perfections!

When talking with Lexi on her own I asked her if she thought she was beautiful. In a shy way and after a pause she replied, “No.” But when asking her if she thought her mother was beautiful she replied without any hesitancy, “Yes.”

Girls at her age are still so unsure about what true beauty is. Mothers, it is our job to teach them, not just by telling them but by telling ourselves.

I can’t express what a powerful message you send with the way you talk about yourself. Girls will of course learn things from their friends and their views will change as they get older, but set the example now. Too many girls are told by their mothers that they are beautiful but still don’t believe it.

If you want your daughters to believe you when you tell them, “You are beautiful,” then you need to believe it too, about yourself! And then every now again they need to hear you shout it from the rooftops… or at least when you look in the mirror before you are done up for the day! If nothing else, do your best to greet yourself with love in the morning, refraining from the usual negative things you may say about your eyes, skin, weight or hair.

Say it!

I am beautiful!

Do you believe it yet?

Moms? Daughters?

Annie? Lexi?

Two of the most beautiful girls I know, both inside and out!

I see how beautiful you are. Do you?

~bedheadmom

Also, check out the commercial for bedheadmom.com that this mother and daughter inspired!