Mallory Butts Is Putting Black Beauty First

glamour.com:

By At 10 years old, Mallory Butts knew she wanted to attend Spelman College.An eager Mallory and her sister scurried alongside their mother, an alum of the college who’d brought her young daughters for a visit, toward the Sisters Chapel—the historic spirituality ministry perched on the center of Spelman’s campus—where they sat in on a set of twins giving a powerful speech on the magic of being Spelman women.“I wish I could remember their names,” Butts tells Glamour, “but I remember them giving a very powerful speech about the way Spelman really influenced who they were post-grad and the different ways that they were successful in their careers and out trying to change the world.”That day Mallory witnessed firsthand the camaraderie shared between Black women when they chose to become Spelmanites.

As she exited the chapel, she watched her mother lovingly shout, “Hey, sister,” toward complete strangers as they walked across the campus.

And while each woman her mother spoke to might not have been a personal friend, they shared a common connection through their historically Black college.

This was an epiphanic memory for Butts, one that solidified her desire to one day attend the school.“Looking at my mom and her Spelman friend group specifically, all of them are always striving toward their goals,” Butts says. “They are always the first person to jump into a leadership role, first person to help someone, and I thought, Well if this is what Spelman represents, then I want to be a part of that.