As a little girl growing up my experience being teased about my color was hard for me.

I remember the first good looking boy a really handsome boy in middle school that I was alone with. I remember he was also African American and gave me a twirl I was wearing a dress when I was then an eleven year old girl and also a middle school girl. This was before I had even gotten my first period. I was thirteen years old when I got my first period. I got excited that he was interested. I saw Mike Steele giving a lecture at Rutgers University a few years ago and I couldn’t believe what a beautiful chocolate photogenic man he was also in his 60s he was. Every time I think of Mike being from the south I just think wow he even coined the phrase “nontraditional black life”. I thought this man is just different and he is all in pictures in his 60s with a good life he’s also an excellent public speaker too.