Describe what Self Love is to you?
Self love is when you practice kind, positive feelings and actions towards yourself without holding back. Self love is honoring who you are by doing the best you can in every situation.

What are some ways you practice self love?

I love myself by taking care of the outside me and the inside me. The outside me is well groomed regularly. For the inside me, I love myself by honoring my thoughts and living fear less. I love myself by believing in who I am. I practice this by not feeling sorry or pity for myself because I trust in me enough to know that I will never lead myself astray. No matter what happens, I can get back up and get through any storm and achieve what I want.

Today, I am a young career woman who loves her skin and all her god given gifts and talents. I share my story to continue to inspire other young people. You cannot be told too many times that you are beautiful.

Are there any hardships you've faced while loving yourself?
As a kid, back in my early years of elementary school, I used to get teased for being black and African.

“Dirt eater!” and "mud bather!” were some of the not-so-nice things the other kids would say. I began to hate who I was. I hated it so bad that in 3rd grade art class, whenever we were asked to draw portraits of ourselves, I'd draw me as a white girl with blonde hair that was easy to comb. I wished that I could abandon the nappy coarse hair African roots that I had inherited from my ancestors. I wanted to become a regular Sally or Jane with long blonde hair because on television, those were always the pretty girls.

The shift came as I grew older, I started seeing more examples of women who looked like me. I became more confident as a result of exposure to black literature, black media, positive black role models, and my travel to Africa which had a profound positive effect on my life.

What advice do you have for someone seeking to practice Self Love?
For someone seeking self love I’d say just trust yourself. Do the best you can always, take care of yourself, always put your best foot forward because you owe it to yourself to do that. All of this is a lot easier said than done but not impossible. I am still learning to incorporate many of these things in my life. But, that's okay because it’s a practice and every day you get better and better at it.

What is your philosophy on love?

My philosophy is true love does not exist in fear. Fear is often communicated through anger, doubt, or jealousy.

If everyone in this world decided to do two things - Truly love themselves and truly love each other this would be a very happy place, all the time.

Lada: I met Tendo so randomly lol. We met on the train platform. I had newly went natural in regards to my hair and she had on a head wrap. I asked her about it, we exchanged information and we have been friends since then. She is one of the most positive people I have ever met and I am so happy she agreed to do the interview. Tendo specifically asked for her interview to be uploaded under Black Love which I understand why. Her love of self is an amazing display of black love.