Caira Lee Stresses the Importance of Radical Self-Love in this Incredible TED Talk

In her TEDxSHHS talk “I search 4 it blinded: the power of self-love and self-esteem,” Caira Lee discusses how to she practices self-love and self-esteem. Lee uses Kendrick Lamar lyrics and a beautiful illustration of her own journey to speak about the power of absolute self-love. She demonstrates that your body, size, race, sexual orientation are assets that don’t need fixing. To her, these are characteristics that we should embrace.



In the talk, Lee gives us four things we can do to reap the benefits of radical self-love. The first one is discovering your thing—that thing makes you feel good and could do for hours on end. Check out the her other three tips in the talk below.


Lee is a 21-year old performance poet from Baltimore City who was voted “Most Likely to Change the World.” Lee first started getting attention for her work as a slam poet while attending Shaker Heights High School, where she won first prize in the Cleveland SlamU youth poetry finals in 2011, earning the chance to compete in the national Brave New Voices competition. Lee is also a state champion of the National Endowment for the Arts' Poetry Out Loud Competition and author of the collection of poems Slaying With No Dents in My Afro. She attends College of Wooster—where she majors in Political Science and Religious Studies—and is the founder and coach of the college’s first slam team, Know Eye Slam.

For more stories, tips and information on how to love the body you're in just the way it is, visit The Body is Not an Apology.

Photo: YouTube

Deonna Anderson is Junior Editor at For Harriet. Follow her on Twitter @iamDEONNA.

activism Caira Lee poetry self-esteem self-love Ted talks