You Are Your Best Thing: Vulnerability, Shame Resilience, and the Black Experience

In her essay, Luvvie Ajayi Jones chronicles the shifts in her name throughout her lifetime. She was born Ifeoluwa Ajayi. “Ifeoluwa” is a Nigerian name that means “God’s love,” representing the hope of her family and her culture. When she began attending a majority-white school in the United States, she was asked to tell the class a little about herself and her background. Uneasy at the thought of convincing a room of white strangers to learn to pronounce her name, she quickly chose the name “Lovette,” and for the rest of her time in school she identified herself as Lovette Ajayi.

Jones describes her journey to accepting her name and her culture. At college, she found a new community of people who took an interest in her Nigerian background, and these friends called her “Luvvie,” so she began to identify herself in that way. She started a blog during college and enjoyed writing, and Jones shares how that led her to start a new blog post-college where she could talk about issues more important to her, such as racism and feminism. The blog, “Awesomely Luvvie,” was named as an homage to the nickname her friends had given her. Jones did not see herself as a writer, so when her blog became a relative success, she ignored it and continued to devote most of her time to outside pursuits.