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1-Page Summary of More Than Enough
Overview
If you have a feeling about something, trust it and act on that feeling. It doesn’t always mean you have to break up with your partner or avoid the person who makes you feel bad; however, if there’s something wrong, investigate where that feeling is coming from. Trust yourself and see where those instincts take you; it could be a great opportunity for success!
Elaine Welteroth’s mother, Debra, likes to tell the story of how Elaine learned to walk. When she was a toddler, her mom gave her a pair of Reeboks that were flamingo pink and sparkly as diamond dust. The moment they were on little Elaine’s feet, she took off running without falling or hesitation. It was clear from an early age that she’d been born to run.
But Elaine’s walking life was not smooth. She relied on a baby walker for support when she first started trying to walk. But sometimes she got stuck in corners, and that made her angry.
Elaine used to be a lot like the people she talks about. She was stuck in life’s corners, but she never gave up and kept moving forward. She knows what it’s like to get stuck and how important it is to keep running toward your goals. Elaine learned many things throughout her journey, including that acting like a stalker isn’t always bad and that you can own a business when you’re only 11 years old.
Big Idea #1: Elaine learned to embrace her race at an early age. Her parents supported her and helped her do this.
Elaine remembers the day she realized that she was different from others. She was three years old and had just been given a project in preschool. It involved making a collage of her family using pictures from magazines, but Elaine already knew that she was different because everyone else in her class looked white while she did not. Her town didn’t have many Asians or people who looked like Elaine’s family, so this made her feel even more unique.
Elaine’s parents were different races. Her father was white and her mother was black, and she had a brother who looked like her.
Little Elaine tried to find images of her family in the classroom, but she couldn’t. She was a black child surrounded by white children and had trouble finding anyone who looked like her family.
A little girl named Elaine was inspired by her classmates’ art projects, which featured images of white people. She copied their work and used pictures of white people on hers. Her mother saw the project and gave her a talk about race, using one of her classic lines: “Houston, we have a problem.” The two then sat down at the kitchen table to discuss how they could fix it. They redid the collage with more accurate cutouts from Ebony and Essence magazines as reminders that Elaine is black.
Elaine was lucky. Her parents provided unconditional love and support to her. She may have felt out of place in the classroom, but she was taught that she was perfect at home.
Big Idea #2: Elaine’s interest in beauty and design helped her become a magazine editor.
Elaine wasn’t yet in fifth grade when she and her best friend Claudia Ortega set up a makeshift beauty salon in Claudia’s backyard. They were both very driven, but they also had limited social skills, which is why they decided to start their business.
The two girls grew up in Newark, New Jersey. Their neighbors were white and the majority of people living there were white. They weren’t accepted by their community because they looked different from most of the other kids. As a result, they didn’t have many friends growing up, which made them realize that they wanted to start their own beauty salon together so that other women could feel as good about themselves as they did when going through the process of becoming more beautiful.