ESSENCE Challenge: Ask your mom about her silliest mistake.
What You Said: “At age 17, wearing a hot-pants jumpsuit to hang out with my friends. I had to call my mom to get cab fare to come home, because I would not have been comfortable at the bus stop!” — Beverly J., via Facebook.
ESSENCE Challenge: Ask your mom about her first kiss.
What you said: “I asked…she had a GOOD laugh, then told me she forgot. #mamaknow #sheainttellin #noneofmybusiness,” @coilyqtee, via Instagram.
ESSENCE Challenge: Ask your mom about her first beauty blunder.
What you said: “Mom got box braids for the first time and absolutely hated them. She asked her 4-year-old (ME!) to help her cut them out,” @bdwpdotcom, via Twitter.
ESSENCE Challenge: Ask your mom about her first heartbreak.
What you said: “My mom married her first love. They’re still married 52 years later,” Theresea D., via Facebook.
ESSENCE Challenge: Ask your mom what she admires most about you.
What you said: “My mom loves the fact that I have a successful career in education. She wanted to be an educator but didn’t have the opportunity to be formally trained. She told me one day that she has been able to live her dream through me and by supporting children in the careers she did have,” @srm220, via Instagram.
ESSENCE Challenge: Ask your mom about the first time she felt beautiful.
What you said: “When she married my Dad. That was the first time she ever believed it,” @beautybbook, via Instagram.
ESSENCE Challenge: Ask your mom about her first career dream.
What you said: “My mom wanted to be a nurse because her mother wanted to go to nursing school and didn’t get the opportunity to go. I watched work her way through LPN school and RN school. Now she is graduating this year as Nurse Practitioner from Rutgers University. I am graduating with my Masters in Healthcare Management on the same day from the same school as her. It is because of her that I am as driven and determined as I am,” @mzbelle_ame, via Instagram.
ESSENCE Challenge: Ask your mom what she loves most about being a mom.
What you said: “Watching her children grow and change into adults,” @roni651, via Instagram.
ESSENCE Challenge: Ask your mom her celebrity crush.
What you said: “Shemar Moore or “Shemarvelous” as she likes to call him lol,” @mzcocoadimples, via Instagram.
ESSENCE Challenge: Ask your mom her biggest fear about having you.
What you said: “My mother’s biggest fear was how to keep my brother and I safe in a world that’s not always fair,” @serenaytg, via Instagram.
ESSENCE Challenge: Ask your mom her favorite childhood memory.
What you said: “She said it was me going around the house doing flips and going up on the walls like I was spider. Also when I would ‘read’ my sister books without knowing a word. Just inventing stories to her,” @myraplussize, via Instagram.
ESSENCE Challenge: Tell your mom something you’ve never told her.
What you said: “I’ve never told her how much having her in the delivery room for both of my crazy babies meant to me for 2 reasons: 1. I was terrified each time of possibly losing my life from unseen circumstances and 2. Having her hold my hand and encouraging me to push gave me the strength to not be afraid of welcoming a life from my womb,” @evolution_of_a_queen, via Instagram.
ESSENCE Challenge: Create a mother/daughter bucket list.
What you said: “To attend ESSENCE Festival [is on our bucket list]! Neither of us have been and this year my mom’s all time favorite is there — Prince. Let’s see what magic I can do to make it happen this year! I love her dearly,” @freetobebrii, via Instagram.
ESSENCE Challenge: Write your mom a letter about what you learned about her during this challenge and give it to her tomorrow.
ESSENCE Challenge: Share a picture of you and your mom on social media and tag it #ESSENCEMom!
