Dear Black Girl

“Dear Dope Black Girl, You don’t know me, but I know you. I know you because I am you! We are magic, light, and stars in the universe.” So begins a letter that Tamara Winfrey Harris received as part of her Letters to Black Girls project, where she asked Black women to write honest, open, and inspiring letters of support to young Black girls aged thirteen to twenty-one. Her call went viral, resulting in a hundred personal letters from Black women around the globe that cover topics such as identity, self-love, parents, violence, grief, mental health, sex, and sexuality. Harris organizes a selection of these letters, providing “a balm for the wounds of anti-Black-girlness” and modeling how Black women can nurture future generations. Each chapter ends with a prompt encouraging girls to write a letter to themselves, teaching the art of self-love and self-nurturing.