Southern Belle strengthens the “Mother-Daughter bond”

Being humble must be inbredded in this North Carolina girl’s DNA; but, don’t let the Southern Charm fool you. This dynamo is a “best-selling author, mental health professional and social entrepreneur!”

Featured in online publications, such as O, The Oprah Magazine, Curly Nikki, Black Enterprise and Madame Noire, Latoya Nicole is “creating her own lane” and bringing diversity to coloring! Not only is she relieving stress while promoting self-care and mental health through her projects, she is “passionate about empowering females” and manages to find time to “teach emerging entrepreneurs how-to start and market their online businesses.”

Her “Mom and Teen: An Activity Journal and Diary for Mother and Daughter” is her fifth publication “under the umbrella of Entrepreneurs Color Too.” She says, “My goal was to expand my coloring book brand to include a line of journals that have coloring pages, prompts and free space. This particular one was to encourage openness and communication between mom and her teen daughter.”

Latoya Nicole recalls her relationship with her mom from childhood to adulthood saying, “Me and my mom have always had a beautiful relationship and as a child I remember writing notes to her on a sheet of loose-leaf paper.” She continues, “After while, those sheets started to pile up and it became overkill very fast. I enjoyed writing things to her, because it gave me more time to process what I wanted to say and how to word it.”

If only she had a journal like this years ago… “all of our little “love notes” could have been in one location and I could have even had something to look back at even in my adult years kind of like we use photo albums now.”

While living in the age of social media, where Millenials and Gen Zers are attached to their cell phones around the clock, the recent global Covid-19 pandemic and stay-at-home orders have allowed families to spend more time together and bond than. Whether creating tik to dances with parents or watching Verzuz battles live, it seems teens and young adults are more receptive to spending that “mommy-daughter time” now, more than ever. Latoya Nicole says, “With everything that’s currently going on in the world, you’re stuck in the house in quarantine so you may as well use some of that free time being creative and learning more about one another.” She continues, “Now is the best time to take advantage of it, because usually you’re busy with daily activities outside of the home and your schedule can fill up so quickly that you look back and ten years have passed. Now that the time seems to be more free you can make better decisions with managing that time and using it wisely.”

While Latoya Nicole says, “It’s natural for a teen to want to spend time and explore relationships with friends and other people, but your teen still needs a healthy relationship with you.” For those who may be struggling or craving that attention. She suggests “Introducing small ways of doing more together. Go back to things that used to be normal like sitting at the table eating dinner together or creating a project together. Teach them something new that they have interest in or have a family night, or actually ask THEM what they would like to do.”

With teen girls, the mother-daughter dynamic is extremely important. Latoya Nicole says, “Journaling can build trust and help them feel safe as they meet the challenges of adolescence.” She adds, “You want to especially stay connected with your teenager so they know you’re available and they are more likely to be open with you about anything. Staying connected with them also helps you as a parent be in a good position to pick up on any problems your child might be having.”

Geared towards teen girls specifically, this coloring journal’s target audience was intentional. Latoya Nicole says, “I wanted to create a journal for teen girls, because my teen years were some of my most prevalent years that I remember. It was a vulnerable and impressionable time and not only did I have my mother as someone to open up to but I also had a mentor.”

As an adult and mentor today, Latoya Nicole says, “The first young girl that I mentored and became a mother figure to was 15 at the time, and by encouraging her to journal, it helped her feel comfortable and became a healthy way for us to bond and for her to express herself.”

The “Mom and Teen: An Activity Journal and Diary for Mother and Daughter” begins with an exercise where mom writes a letter to her daughter. Latoya Nicole says, “This will set the tone so that the daughter feels loved and comfortable.”

The journal functions as a living workbook for the mother and daughter to do just that; work! Work on themselves as individuals and also bond as a collective.

Latoya Nicole teases, “I also have an activity that I call the “trash can method”. There can be no judgment or punishment when the teen opens up and shares a secret. The objective is to just listen and focus on building and improving the relationship.”

By the end of the diary, it is Latoya Nicole’s prayer “that it [the journal] helps mom and daughter discover and learn something new about one another, have fun with each other, share moments together and remember this bonding experience for years to come.”

Two versions (paperback and hardcover) of the Mom and Teen Journal are available on Amazon. The paperback retails for $10.99, and the hardcover for $14.99.