A little girl, she wants to everything her mommy is. She looks in the mirror, running her fingers through her golden curls, and thinks how it would be to have deep auburn waves like her. She smiles, trying to make her lips just the shapes mommy's are when she smiles. Tilting her head just a touch she remembers that picture of mommy and wonders, 'do I look like her when I do this?'

This is an age old story. I think it's born in every girl to be 'just like mommy'.  We probably all remember a similar moment in our own girlhood.

How do we reach that little heart, the one reaching out to copy our every move- and fill them with security in their own beauty?  How do we turn those eyes of longing from the mirror, and show them that true beauty lies within. 

Do they see little discontents in our lives? Our we striving to be the image of someone else still? The neighbor that can wear anything and it looks classy? The cashier that's a size 2? Or maybe just a longing to have the figure we once had. Do they hear us degrading our own image, maybe the few extra pounds our hips could drop? Our face? Afraid to let a couple wrinkles show? These things will mold the way they think of themselves.

I think the mother who is fully content in who she is, will raise daughters who are also secure in their own image. 

I am guilty, society all but teaches us to be discontent with our various features. We idolize those with a 'perfect image' or a 'flawless face'... But what defines these things? We need to stop doing our daughters a disservice and let them see a little pride in just 'being who you are'. 

That said, I do think it is sweet when my little one wants to just like her mommy, and I hope I can point her to follow in more ways than poise, mannerisms, and looks. :-)