To be pregnant and talented is to be pregnant and discounted, even if all the work up until that point adds up to a literal billion. To be a mom and have a career is to make tiny decisions every day about what’s best for almost every single person you encounter because of how you feel you’re perceived—less than a good mom, less than a good coworker, less than a caregiver, less than a success. I have no doubt Rihanna thought tirelessly about putting on the best show for y’all and taking the best care of her baby, for y’all to turn around and drag her hard work. Nah, we’re not going to have that.

I’m usually not a big fan of “chewing the meat and spitting out the bones” because often the meat ain’t even seasoned right itself. But, in this case, if we’re going to do it with Christmas and Easter (and Thanksgiving and Communion and vestments and wedding rings and the days of the week and the months of the year), we can certainly do it for Halloween.

By the time I was crawling toward graduation in 2015, the best friends I’d made and I looked around at the freshman and knew without a shadow of a doubt that if we had applied at the same time as them, we would have NEVER received acceptance letters. Northeastern, within a few short years, had made a NAME for itself.

And you’re mad at yourself for living up to societies expectations that you have to build a man, when some men do already come built, you’re just not willing to wait, patiently.

I say all this to say, if Shea Moisture wants to expand their market reach, let them. I'm all for inclusion when it comes from Pantene, Tresseme, Paul Mitchell, Garnier, Kerastase, Sexy Hair all themmmmm. BUT DANG SHEA MOISTURE, WE CANT HAVE NOTHING CAN WE?! It's like when your mom tells you she'll give you her fried chicken recipe when you get married, but then let's your sister in on the secret when she turns 16. LET THEM FIGURE IT OUT DON'T GIVE IT TO THEM!!!