I identify strongly with the Carefree Black Girl lifestyle. The concept was created to bring light to the diverse and expressive nature of black women and counter negative and stereotypical portrayals of black women in the media.

What is a carefree black girl?

A Carefree Black Girl (CBG) is someone who seizes the freedom to be and create herself. CBGs are free, happy, and doing their own thing.

Search the hashtag #carefreeblackgirl and you will find a plethora of melanated goddesses flaunting their beauty, quirks, afros, midriffs, smiles, and slammin’ style.

It’s important to clarify though, how one looks does not define the CBG, it is the spirit and intention behind the exteriors. There is a space for every kind of black woman and girl in the CBG movement.

The carefree black girl spirit spoke to something within me.

When I first started learning about the CBG via blogs and other social media, I was immediately drawn to the concept and felt it spoke to something I was experiencing: evolution and freedom.

These changes in my life were pronounced by the adoption of a minimalist lifestyle. Minimalism, simply put, is about living with less, whatever that means for you.

For me, it meant decluttering physical stuff, giving up a “normal” life, releasing doubts and fears, not “doing the most” but being my best, and pursuing my passions.

We are taught having it all means we’ve acquired certain things: a degree, a respectable career, certain material possessions, a spouse, and children, but what of those that reject this definition of “all”.

It’s not to say minimalists don’t aspire to have some or all of these things, but we’ve discovered that having it “all” as defined by society can be a great burden emotionally, physically, spiritually, and financially. We’ve learned having less and living more simply allows us to do and be more and define our own versions of “all”.

Carefree black girl as minimalist.

When I stopped trying to be who I thought I should be, I began to understand true happiness. Being carefree is minimalist and being minimalist invokes my inner CBG.

Carefree minimalism is about taking risks, exploring, non-attachment to material things and negativity, leading from within versus following from without. It’s about defining myself for myself and charting the trajectory of my own life.

Ultimately, it’s about understanding that I am enough as I am and that is true liberation.