*In an ESSENCE cover story exclusive, music icon Janet Jackson pens an intimate message to Black women for the magazine’s first-ever “Happiness” issue.
In “Letter From My Heart,” Ms. Jackson shares some of the lessons she learned from her childhood to adulthood—including her early struggles with depression, failed relationships and how she eventually found happiness.
Jackson shares:
In Her Childhood: “I was happy when my brothers came home from performing on the road. I was happy when my mother lavished me with love. But I wasn’t happy with the way I looked…”
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In Her Teens: “Happiness came when people asked me to perform…but I was happiest when I was pleasing others and not myself. An older and wiser Janet might have said, ‘True happiness is knowing you’re doing the best you can…'”
In Her Thirties: “These were difficult years, when I struggled with depression. The struggle was intense. I could analyze the source of my depression forever. Low self-esteem might be rooted in childhood feelings of inferiority. It could relate to failing to meet impossibly high standards. And of course there are always the societal issues of racism and sexism. Put it all together and depression is a tenacious and scary condition. Thankfully, I found my way through it…”
Today, at 52: “Now the height of happiness is holding my baby son in my arms and hearing him coo, or when I look into his smiling eyes and watch him respond to my tenderness. When I kiss him. When I sing him softly to sleep. During those sacred times, happiness is everywhere. Happiness is in gratitude to God…”
“When it comes to happiness, I’m no expert,” Jackson writes in the feature story. “I have only my life experience as a guide. I’ve known great happiness and great sadness. But I guess the key question is, What do I really know about happiness?”
For more on the July/August issue, which hits newsstands on June 22nd, or to purchase tickets for Janet’s upcoming ESSENCE Festival performance on Sunday, July 8th, visit ESSENCE.com.
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