Fantasia Barrino-Taylor is celebrating a very important milestone for her firstborn child. Her daughter Zion turned 18 this week. Although she may be an adult now…she’ll always be mama’s little girl in Fantasia’s eyes.
The singer, who gave birth to Zion as a teenager, posted a series of photos and videos of her daughter in a sweet post. The caption gives us a flashback of some of their best memories. “I remember the day my water broke,” she writes. “It was the scariest feeling in the world. We lived in Winston Salem at the time and Papa Joe had left the house for a second and so I called the ambulance. Zi, I was terrified because I was so young and I wanted to give you the world but I didn’t know how I was going to do it. You came a little early and at the time I was thinking it was because you were either nosey (lol) or you heard all my cry’s and felt you needed to come on out and protect me. Now I see it was the protection part and still to this day you go hard for Mommy!”
Fantasia also shared some funny memories of Zion as a toddler, including her rivalry with their family pet. “We had a dog named Diva,” she explains. “Zion would hit her from time to time, she was 3 years old, and Diva would always get her butt right back. When she did, Zion would run in the room crying, ‘Diva Said, Diva Said.’ I told her DIVA CANT TALK ZION!!”
In a second post, Fantasia admits to feeling emotional that her little girl is all grown up. “[I’m] having a hard time with this 18 thing,” she writes. “Have a blast tonight and remember always walk with class.”
Fantasia became a household name in 2004 when she won American Idol at just 19 years old. At the time, she was an aspiring singer who had dropped out of high school and was hoping the decision to follow her dreams would provide a better life for herself and Zion.
On Mother’s Day 2005, the singer released a song called “Baby Mama” celebrating the fact that she had beaten the odds as a young, unwed mother. “I caught a lot of flak for being a young mama,” Fantasia said during a return trip back to the American Idol set. ” [People said] ‘she’s a young mom, she can’t finish school, she can’t do this, she can’t do that.’ And when I did it, I said, ‘I want a song for all those young parents. I want a song to encourage them and let them know, regardless of what you’ve done, your past, you can better yourself, whatever it is you want to do.’ ‘Cause when I had my child, people tried to make me feel like life was over for me, and I started to believe that.”
Not only is Fantasia a success story, but so is her baby girl! Zion recently graduated from high school, and both of her parents were there to cheer her on.