Jenna Bush Hagar Writes Eloquent Letter to Her Daughters and You Need to Copy It

Jenna Bush Hager wants her daughters to know that they are enough.

The mother of two wrote open letter about positive body image to her girls, Poppy Louis, 21 months, and Margaret “Mila” Laura, 4. The letter, published on Today‘s website as part of their Love Your Body series, touches on the themes of beauty and self-worth. Bush Hager also addresses some lessons about self-acceptance she hopes her daughters will follow.

“When I’m on the road, traveling away from you, I compulsively scroll through photos of you on my phone,” begins Bush Hager, 35. “I look at your eyes bright, your smiles wide, your skin pure. I have never seen anything more beautiful than the two of you.”

“It is the way you look — your blue eyes (that I longed for as a girl) and your golden hair — but more than that, it is YOU!” she continues. “I see all of you: your kindness, your exuberance, your creativity and, yes, your rambunctious humor.”

“But, my darling girls, that purity and light I see in your eyes could one day be shattered by our world,” Bush Hager writes. “You will see images on TV and in movies and magazines to which you will inevitably compare yourself. And you will feel that you come up short. I know that I did.”

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The former first daughter, who is married to Henry Hager, shares her own personal experiences with her insecurities from when she was a young girl, including her braces and height.

“My hearts, you, too, will look in the mirror and not always like what you see,” Bush Hager adds. “You might not feel skinny enough or pretty enough. But if Daddy and I do our jobs, you will look in the mirror and always like who you see. And that, my babes, is far more important.”

She went on to talk about her childhood and said her parents, George W. Bush and Laura Bush, known as “Jefe and Grammee” to their granddaughters, told her she was “smart and kind and pretty,” but she sometimes didn’t believe them.

“They taught me that who I am is more important than how I look,” Bush Hager explains of her parents. “And that if I radiate love, kindness and empathy, I can bring some light to this dark world (and isn’t that better than being a size zero?).”

“So, my precious babes, always, always know that just by being authentically you, you are more than enough,” she concludes the letter. “And my hope is that one day, when you stand judging yourself in front of a mirror, you can see yourself the way I that I see you.”

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