Arielle Beamon
Elizabeth City State University
Growing up, I would always anticipate walking into my parent’s living room to find an EBONY magazine on the coffee table, where some pages were creased due to the self-made bookmark created by my mother. I would quickly turn to those pages to resolve my intuitions about what type of articles captured my mother’s attention, or what’s the next recipe she would be stirring up, yet at the same time, I was captivated by so many faces who looked like me - black and brown women from cover to cover. Now that I recall, some of the creased pages were also of her favorite perfume fragrances, which I believe was a soft hint for my father to know what to purchase for her as a gift for whatever holiday was quickly approaching. Fast-forward, 15 years later, I would have never imagined that I am one month shy of walking into not just my parent’s living room, but bookstores, airports, grocery outlets, and other places like doctor’s offices and newsstands all around the nation - I will not just see people who look like me, but I will actually see me! Miss Elizabeth City State University - WOW! I am grateful for the opportunity to be selected by EBONY as one of the Top 10 HBCU Queens. This is a dream come true. More so, it is a reality - a humble one that I take seriously. Thank you, EBONY for choosing me! Thank you, EBONY for celebrating women of color!!!