My Loves,

One day, much sooner than I expect, you’ll stand in front of a mirror and begin to form opinions about what you see. And when that happens, I hope you remember this letter. Or perhaps, I hope you feel what I’m saying here, whether or not you recall my exact words.

I met someone recently. A grown woman. She looked at photos of herself, photos where she looked exactly as she does, and she couldn’t accept them. She said something was wrong. She asked for changes, wanting her face smoothed, her features softened, her chin blended into her neck until nothing real was left. The photos she showed, as her preferred look, were so filtered that she no longer looked like herself.

She wasn’t pretending. She meant it. That image, the one filtered into near-fiction, felt right to her. Her real face felt wrong.

I’ve carried that moment with me. Not because I judged her, but because I understood. It frightened me how easily we start believing a lie when it’s the version we see every day.

I worry for both of you.

You were born into a world where filters, AI and digital alterations are as normal as sunlight. In this world, beauty can be “upgraded” with the swipe of a screen. You won’t remember a time before that. And so, I’m writing this because there’s something I need you to know, something I fear the world won’t tell you soon enough.

Your face matters. Your skin, your features, your hair, your shape. All of it, just as it is, matters.

You don’t need to add anything or take anything away to be enough.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t enjoy dressing up, wearing makeup, or caring about how you present yourself. I hope you do, when it brings you joy. But never let those things become corrections. They are choices, not fixes.

I want you to see yourselves clearly. And to believe that what you see is good.

To help you with this, I have my own work to do.

I will not edit myself out of your childhood.

The photos I share, the videos you’ll stumble upon one day as you scroll through my digital life, will show me as I am. You’ll see my face whether it’s tired, glowing, or somewhere in between. Even when I choose to doll myself, to enhance, I’ll remind myself that it’s from joy, not from lack.

And perhaps most importantly, the images framed in our home, the faces you grow up seeing on our walls, will tell you only one story: that the real version of us is always enough.

You’re growing up in a world that will keep asking you to improve yourselves. That world profits from your doubt. I don’t. I stand to lose everything if you start believing that you are not enough.

So if I ever forget to say it out loud, let this letter remind you.

See yourself clearly. Know that you are worthy. Let your reflection be enough.
And may you always recognise the face looking back at you.

With love that needs no filter,
Mama