“Even if it makes others uncomfortable, I will love who I am.”
In the children’s book, “Who Am I,” by Phillip Bunting, children as young as 3 years of age are invited to explore the power of asking questions and thinking critically. Concepts such as gender identity, abstract thought, and more, challenge children to reach outside of superficial constructs and gain a deeper awareness of themselves and the world around them. When this ability is promoted during the formative years, it can help to build a person’s capacity to resolve problems and conflict, appropriately evaluate new information, be open to learning from other people and the natural world and explore opportunities to positively change and grow.
Though we are always evolving as humans and as individuals, this evolution comes with many unknowns. With this, fear often influences our desire to change our perceptions, especially when we are struggling with our own identities. In reality, most of what we understand about our identity is taught to us, and our perceptions are highly influenced by our understanding of what is socially acceptable and what is not. For instance, the concept of beauty. Who gets to make the decision about who is beautiful and who is not? When I look at other people, I may have opinions about the way that they look, but what am I basing it on? Even when I look at myself in the mirror, the same thing that I may find beautiful about someone else, I may not feel is beautiful about me. Why is that?