One day I was scrolling through Instagram, and I saw a picture of a book with a highlighted statement: “I don’t want to be pretty… I want to be powerful. I want to be approached like a woman and not a piece of meat.”

I was intrigued and quickly found out that it came from I Love My Love by 23-year-old poet Reyna Mays who was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. Although she has a Tumblr account where she constantly writes little poems about relationships, friendships, and self-love, I Love My Love is her first book to be published.
Published on December 4, 2015, I Love My Love is a collection of free form poems about her experience with love. It is #50 on Amazon’s list of best-selling poetry. The main theme of the book is loving yourself, hence the title.
The book begins by giving readers a bit of background of who Reyna is with poems like “Who I was in High School” and “The Love Note My Mother Never Wrote Me.” Readers learn that Reyna’s mother wasn’t the most loving or caring person out there. Reyna never experienced parental love as a child which caused her to easily fall in love with anyone. This made her depressed since she would get her heart broken multiple times.
The book then continues with “Dear Diary,” a poem that many women would understand as she’s writing about herself, stating her flaws, describing her social media hate, life, and then ending it with the words “I’m not worth it.”
However, she doesn’t like feeling this way so she wants to change. Reyna begins that journey with messages like “Dear Self”, the intro being “I miss your smile” and “I wish you’d see all your worth.” She takes her readers through a journey of self-discovery and self-appreciation.
This book had a strong impact on me. I can relate to Reyna in the way that she’s insecure and doesn’t love herself. I love the way she writes because it makes me feel like Reyna is having a full intimate conversation with me.
Reading these poems, I felt as if I grew with her and I was motivated to begin a much more in-depth journey to self-discovery and self-actualization. It doesn’t happen overnight, but I’m figuring out myself every day, and I know myself more and more as the days pass.
I recommend that every girl should read this book to enjoy the experience. I feel like everyone could easily relate to her stories and appreciate the wisdom that comes from Reyna Mays.

A poem from Reyna Mays’ I love my love

For you

You’re worthy. Of any and every kind of love. You were

made so delicately and beautifully. Stop diluting yourself

to fit the standards of anyone who is unable to see how

perfect you are. It’s not you, it’s them. Don’t ever

give anybody the power to define you, alter who you are, or

destroy you. Your opinion about yourself is the only one

that matters. So fall in love.

As hard and as deep as possible – with the only person who

it makes sense to. YOU.