Annetta Mother-Smith. The Grace and Courage blog.
Hi, my name is Annetta Mother-Smith and this is my blog. On here I will be talking about “Black girl issues” and growth mindset. I will deliver my controversial opinions on the state of gender and race inequalities in the UK and also write faithfully about life as a millennial, relationships, Christianity in the 21st Century and being a leader in the modern era. Essentially my life with the various hats on.
A bit about me.
First things first, my name isn’t Annetta Mother-Smith. Annetta was the pet name of my paternal grandmother along with the name her children called her “M.O” short for M.O.T.H.E.R i.e. mother, hence the name Mother-Smith, Smith being her maiden name. No disrespect of course to my maternal grandmother, but this one felt natural.
Next confession. This isn’t my first attempt at getting my voice heard. I was an enterprising child. I wrote a magazine called “The Big Issue” in the 1990’s whose name wasn’t stollen from the magazine. It just happened to be at the same time. It had jokes and brain teasers I’d learnt from my dad and short stories I’d written. I just want to say, that I should have been crowned an actual genius as my magazine was created on Windows 97 by a child under 10 and it had a crossword. I designed it myself. Truly, I awe at hidden achievements.
Next was the poetry. Then the short story writing, which stayed with me until I was about 16. Shout out to my first novel, “the Poultry Farmer and other stories” only available from my mum which was a tribute to the adventures of my mum’s twin brother, an actual poultry farmer. To this day, aged 30 years old, never met this man. But I’ve written extensively about his life. Love you Uncle.
Finally, there was debating, I joined every debating society I could get my hands on even when I moved schools, including model United Nations where I championed giving all world leaders nuclear arms to promote world peace. (Thank God no one has put me in charge of world affairs) and then when I couldn’t get anymore debating societies run by staff, I set up my own. Current Issues. Thanks again to Miss Hutchinson for supporting my hustle.
In short, my voice was always going to get out. So here it is. My mum always says, “I’m a child of the universe, I have a right to be here.” and I, have a right to speak. I’d also like to occasionally exercise my right to make logical sense. But I try to live my life with Grace and Courage. And I hope that that means that life will get better for all of us.
Grace and Courage.
Annetta Mother-Smith.