Put On Your Crown

Every girl has a queen hidden inside

By Leticia Rodriguez

Unlike your average biography, Queen Latifah takes the goal of a self-help book and combines it with her personal experiences –the challenges and the triumphs- and how they have contributed to the woman she is today.

Put On Your Crown was written for teenagers and young women but the messages in this book can serve any woman lacking confidence or looking for a little guidance on how to find strength.

Like a friend giving some much-needed words of encouragement, Queen Latifah, doesn’t preach a certain set of rules to get the perfect life. She doesn’t flaunt her fame and fortune or bring up examples that the average female can’t identify with. Put On Your Crown emphasizes individual perfection. It’s about what we survive – no matter how big or small – and how well we adapt to certain situations in life.

The book is divided into eight chapters about some of these life elements: Success, Beauty, Money, Love, Fear, Loss, Strength and Joy.

In these chapters Latifah discusses her personal triumphs like her first record, accepting her body and finding life after the untimely death of her older brother. She counters all of this with some of the unfortunate events she dealt with. The book touches on childhood molestation, teenage drug use and sex, as well as being on the brink of bankruptcy.

While all of the chapters have important life lessons and values, Beauty and Strength are the most important for young females who are just beginning to establish an identity.

Beauty is a chapter that all young women could use to deal with the pressures of being a female in today’s society. In it, Latifah tells the reader about what it was like to grow up as a full figured girl. She writes of how long it took her to stray from “normal” beauty ideals and label herself a “Queen”.

‘When it came time to release my first album, I was able to resist pressures to look a certain way, and I created my own style. I called myself “Queen” because that’s exactly how I felt inside.”

In Strength, Latifah stresses that young women have to avoid the pressures of society and ill-willed people. The most moving message in this chapter is a females right to say “no”. She writes of a time when she bent over backwards to please people despite her unhappiness. Latifah emphasizes that some of us will often compromise our values, abilities and even willingness to do what pleases others especially authority figures.

‘No Means no! We’re conditioned to please. As girls we learn to acquiesce… And the more we do it, the more we say yes when we really mean no, the more our boundaries are crossed. The more we lose ourselves.’

The common theme in this book is the values that Queen Latifah’s family and friends have instilled in her. Every chapter starts off with an inspirational quote, some from famous people like Maya Angelou and Oprah but a few from her mother and other female relatives.

Perhaps the very first quote from Winnie the Pooh should have been saved for the very last page:

“You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem and smarter than you think”