These photos were taken for a 2018 project entitled “Growing Naturally,” an ode to Black girls and women, with a special focus centered around their strength, joy, and tenacity.

The message that I hope new viewers of this project receive, especially Black girls and women, is that it's okay to just be you. As Black women, we are often forced to conform to society's expectations of us. We are told how to smile, when to laugh, and how to make others feel comfortable -- without the same care and consideration being offered towards us. I think that it's time for us to take that back. I want Black women and girls to be as loud and as carefree as they want, because everyone else gets to do it. I feel that the least we can do as a community is to afford Black women that same grace and privilege.

With this piece, I hope to inspire current and future generations of Black women to show up and live as their most authentic selves, because at the end of the day no one else is going to do it for us.

Leilani Ross-Graham

CAS '23, Journalism & Social and Cultural Analysis

OP Ambassador, Social Development Student Coordinator