Naturi explained that she and her ex are dedicated to teaching their nearly 2 year old daughter, Zuri, to love everything about her beauty, day in and day out. That way Zuri’s healthy opinion of herself later in life, will never be swayed in America’s warped society, which is oftentimes filled with brainwashed perceptions of ‘lighter being righter’:
“When we wake up, we have a regimen,” she explained. “Once she’s dressed, we stand in front of the mirror and do these little affirmations that say, ‘Who’s that pretty girl? I’m that pretty girl!’ And I say, ‘Zuri, that’s you!’”
Naughton said that their routine is “not for vanity’s sake, it’s for affirmation.” It’s also to help little Zuri develop a “confidence from within.”
Naturi Is “Redefining Black”…
Essence also reported that Naturi is now ‘lending her voice to the #RedefineBlack campaign…a partnership between Procter and Gamble, My Black is Beautiful and DoSomething.org.’
“In auditions, I was told, ‘Can you blacken it up? You know, can you make it a little more Black?’ I’m like, ‘Well what does that mean?’ ‘Well, you know, harder,’…And they wanted me to either act coonish or in an ignorant fashion or to do something that doesn’t align with who I am.”
“My journey and my struggle as a Black woman, particularly as a Black actress in this business, I’ve had to come up against some of those stereotypes being a Black actress,” Naughton said. “And just being a Black woman in the world and being told sometimes that I wasn’t marketable or wasn’t commercial or my look wasn’t what is perceived to be beautiful.”
Wishing Naturi and Ben the best going forward as co-parents, and give them props for conditioning Zuri early on to love herself inside and out.
