Bozoma Saint John On Motherhood And Mental Wellness
Bozoma Saint John does it all. “I don’t think that, when you’re a mom, you have one identity,” she tells ESSENCE. “Your mommyhood doesn’t define everything.” While she’s the mother […] The post Bozoma Saint John On Motherhood And Mental Wellness appeared first on Essence.
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Bozoma Saint John does it all.
“I don’t think that, when you’re a mom, you have one identity,” she tells ESSENCE. “Your mommyhood doesn’t define everything.” While she’s the mother of her 16-year-old daughter, Lael, Saint John is also a friend, the founder of Eve By Boz and The Badass Workshop, a marketing executive, a Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star, and even a DoorDash ambassador. “All of those titles are incorporated in who I am,” Saint John affirms.
And, as a Ghanaian-American at the top of the corporate ladder, all of her hats intersect with each other. For one, it wasn’t until she did an Apple keynote presentation for Apple Music did she even come up with the idea to jumpstart her hair brand, Eve By Boz. “There was equal amounts of conversation after the presentation about the service itself, the platform itself, and then also my hair,” she says about her twist out. “Folks were very surprised to see that a senior executive at Apple was, first of all, a Black woman and also had her hair out in her fabulous Afro.”
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Throughout her career, her beauty—from twist outs to braids and long weave—has been a complement to her business savvy as an executive. In showing up as herself, she’s long challenged the stigma about Black hair in the boardroom. “All of the places in which we think that, ‘hey, look, you’ve got to be pulled back in order to appear professional, I have changed that,” she says.
That’s when having a hair brand comes into play. Switching up her hairtarget="_blank"> View this post on Instagram
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“It’s really, really helped to have friends who have this duality or these multi-leveled titles that I can count on to just get advice or get information from,” she says. “We have all of these titles and are able to support each other.” Giving and receiving is how she maintains balance in her life, community, business, and in motherhood.
But, aside from advice, one special treat also helps: “If you want to show me you love me, send me a bottle of champagne,” she laughs. “Self-care is a combination of giving to my friends who I know could be in a position where they could just need a little pick-me-up during the day and also receiving.”
As someone who appreciates the art of gift giving, her daughter is the primary recipient of her extravagant generosity, of course. To the point, she even gifted her a $110,000 Maserati after passing her driver’s test. But, that doesn’t mean she has it all figured out as a mother. “There is no rule book,” she says about parenting her only child. And, she doesn’t try to pretend there is. “‘Girl, I don’t know what the hell I’m doing. I’ve never parented like an almost 17-year-old before’,” she told her daughter.
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Between navigating boundaries with Lael around curfew and social life, “I’m trying to give myself as much grace as possible in these unchartered waters.” But, as her daughter starts applying for college in the upcoming year, Saint John is in a state of reflection about it all. “I’m realizing that these formative years of having her in my home and being able to raise her day to day are quickly coming to an end,” she says.
Aside from school, one lesson she hopes Lael will take with her to college is how to be her own person. “While she is watching me live my fullest, most beautiful life, I’ve hoped that she’s also seen that ‘I, myself, think I am beautiful’,” she says. With her daughter being bi-racial raised by a dark-skinned Black woman, “Black women, in all of the different forms in which we come, are not a monolith.”
So, she’s setting an example of what self-care looks like. “She wants to take care of her skin, enhance her features and everything that is required in order to feel beautiful out in the world, that she will do because she’s seen me consider myself as beautiful,” Saint John says. “I don’t necessarily need the validation from anyone else.”
TOPICS: Bozoma Saint John
The post Bozoma Saint John On Motherhood And Mental Wellness appeared first on Essence.
