Taking Up Space: Redefining Beauty as a Living, Breathing Truth

By Dr. Chi Quita Mack, LMSW

For Hannah McCall, CEO of Clean Beauty for Black Girls, beauty has never been something to chase. It is something to remember. Something to return to. Beauty, as she defines it, is an aura. A sureness in purpose. A quiet confidence that does not ask for permission or validation. “Beauty is a mirror in its true form,” she shares. “You can’t see it, if you can’t see yourself.”

That definition was not handed to her. It was shaped through movement, travel, lived experience, and the people she encountered along the way who embodied beauty without trying to perform it. Over time, beauty stopped being about what could be seen and became about what could be felt. It became internal, reflective, and deeply personal.

Healing, self love, and self discovery are not buzzwords in Hannah’s world. They are the foundation of how she exists. She calls them a trifecta, one that is always in motion. “Self love requires a lot of unlearning,” she explains. “The self discovery happens within that learning. And healing is the result of allowing yourself the permission and freedom to love yourself while discovering yourself.” For her, self love means creating a safe environment within your own mind, body, and soul. One rooted in compassion rather than criticism. Healing then becomes a conscious choice of what you carry forward and what you are willing to leave behind.

Confidence and identity were not always easy companions. For much of her life, Hannah lived in a pattern of pleasing, fixing, and adhering without recognition. Disconnection followed. Then motherhood changed everything. In affirming her child’s worth, she realized she had to live that truth loudly herself. Every day, she makes a choice between honoring her personhood and purpose or giving power to opinions that do not sustain her life. She grounds herself with reminders of where she is going, written visibly throughout her home. “It looks like focus,” she says, “but really I’m holding my own hand so fear doesn’t get loud enough to knock me down.”

Care, for Hannah, is non-negotiable. She does not put herself last. She is the balance. When she is well, her business is well. She checks in with herself multiple times a week, asking what feels aligned, what is falling away, and why. Her days are anchored by movement, stillness, reflection, and intention. Walking, stretching, reading, journaling, meditating. Even decluttering becomes an act of care. And she reminds herself often, out loud, “You don’t exist to prove your productivity.”

On the days confidence feels quiet, she meets herself with grace. She slows down. She pours in. Tea, sunlight, gentleness. “I crawl into my body and ask, what feels kind to your spirit today?” Confidence, for her, is not performance. It is presence.

She does not stay in spaces that challenge her identity or value. Her worth is not up for discussion. “My identity is mine. My value is innate,” she says plainly. She has learned that not every room deserves her energy, and leaving is sometimes the most powerful form of self respect.

Unlearning beauty standards was essential to fully embracing herself. She released the idea that beauty standards exist for anyone other than those disconnected from their reflection. She rejected imposed standards around body and hair. Her face, her body, her hair are not separate from her. They are her. To deny them would be to deny the lineage and resilience that made her existence possible. She speaks of her body with reverence, her face with honor, her hair as a daily teacher of freedom and renewal. “To fully embrace who I am,” she says, “I had to shift from altering and rejecting to nurturing and protecting.”

To women still learning how to love themselves, Hannah offers a powerful invitation. Sit with every negative thought. Ask where it came from. Recognize which ones are not yours. Set them down. Speak to yourself gently. Hold your own face in your hands. Be willing to write a new script.

And to the woman who knows she is meant for more but feels afraid, her words are both grounding and bold. Leaping is living. Fear is not a stop sign. It is the entrance fee. “If you can dream of more,” she says, “you’re meant for more.”

As she steps into her next level of beauty, confidence, and power, Hannah is clear. It looks like taking up space. It looks like loving herself so fully that others, when they encounter her, see possibility reflected back at them. A reminder. A mirror. A return to their own beauty.

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