EBONY Love: Nia Long, Common and MyBrownBaby Bare It All!

My God, I loved being pregnant. Swollen feet, morning sickness, constipation and Mac truck-sized pre-natal vitamins aside, feeling that little body flutter against my belly, knowing that I was carrying God’s miracle—flesh of my flesh, blood of my blood—was truly one of the most incomparably incredible things I’ve ever done in my 42 years of breathing. Plus, for the first time in my life, I had boobs. And long, thick, shiny hair. And flawless skin that glowed. And nobody questioned my affinity for popsicles and Haagen Dazs and broccoli—or my penchant for mixing them all together at one sitting. And I got to walk around with a big ol’ pot belly and oversized clothes and everybody thought it was beautiful. No, seriously: I loved maternity clothes. Loved them. They fit my belly and my booty and my boobies—something that never seemed to happen, like, ever, when I had the super-curvy, flat-chested, Coke-bottle body that just refused to fit into outfits sans tailoring or rigging. That was pre-J-Lo, Buffy the Body, stretch material and PZI jeans.

I digress.

I’m reminiscing about how beautiful and super-powery and Wonder Girl  I felt pregnant because of the November 2011 issue of EBONY magazine, which features the 42-year-old, very pregnant, very nude superstar beauty Nia Long. I’m just sayin’. Take a look at the picture. Right. ‘Nuff said.

According to EBONY, the cover story on the Boyz ‘N the Hood, love jones, and The Best Man star gives readers “an inside look into her pregnancy diary, the shocking news that made her knees buckle, and how she and her partner, Ime Udoka, are handling the changes and bracing for a new chapter in life. She also opens up to EBONY for the first time ever about her humble roots, reconnecting with family in the West Indies, raising her son, finding her life mate—and about the pregnancy that wasn’t suppose to happen.

Get it, Nia—show all these young bucks how it’s done.

And after you finish reading up on Nia, take a peek at my story on reverse migration, the trend of African-Americans leaving Northern cities to put down their roots in the South. It’s a piece that’s quite personal to me and mine, seeing as my entire nuclear family made the move South more than six years ago, after the death of my mom. Nick the hubs tag-teams my piece with a story on the best places to live, see and love in the cities attracting all that Northern chocolate.

EBONY rounds out the issue with a luscious spread on X Factor judge and musical genius L.A. Reid’s Hamptons estate; a Tom Joyner-penned column on why African Americans should have Barack Obama’s back in the next presidential campaign, and—gasp! swoon!—pictures of my boyfriend, er, favorite rapper Common, who spreads the word on his life and new memoir, One Day It’ll All Make Sense.

Come on, folk—Nia, Common and a really pretty house, plus moi, all in one issue.

Cop that.

Happy hump day!

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Denene Millner

Mom. NY Times bestselling author. Pop culture ninja. Unapologetic lover of shoes, bacon and babies. Nice with the verbs. Founder of the top black parenting website, MyBrownBaby.

17 Comments

  1. Oh isn’t she lovely!

    Pregnancy is so fun. I had the same experience with falling in LOVE with maternity clothes. ….sigh (insert waxing and waning baby fever)

  2. Don’t be messin’ with my boyfriend Common…errr(growling)…Love Nia since “Boyz In Da Hood!”

  3. I have been enjoying my pregnant belly and I recently wrote a post about how I feel good seeing my reflection. I am going to read the article and your article on reverse immigration because my sister is thinking about moving South in the future.

  4. Dang, how you gonna mention your hubby and then boyfriend in the next sentence?

  5. Awesome, Denene! I will definitely be picking up this issue!

  6. OMG! Ebony has been on a complete ROLL lately.

    I will definitely be subscribing (now i just cop it at the store. cheaper to subscribe).

    And your story–like you–is dope!

  7. Haha… your husband and boyfriend all in one magazine! And Nia and YOU… definitely going to get it. Stat!

  8. Kia Morgan Smith

    Denene, Oh I’m going to cop that!! Can’t wait to read your piece. Girl you can WRITE! It’s ridiculous how you just make words melt. For real! XOXO! (Uh, is my boyfriend LL Cool J anywhere in this issue? Shhh… don’t tell nobody!)

  9. Oh I LOOOOOVED being pregnant. It was the first time in my life that I actually had noticeable woman jingle. Nice picture of Ms. Long too. Ebony loves her. I feel like her and M Obama are the constants on the cover. oh and Jada too.

  10. I really wish I’d loved being pregnant. That is one of the main reasons I’m sad we won’t be having another; because I don’t get a Do Over.

  11. Denene, LOVED IT
    …Common all I can say is mmmm..mmm…good!

  12. So I might be the first and only woman that disliked with a passion being pregnant… and it is all selfish reasons…. I was a size “0” when I got pregnant with my first child at 21, when I got pregnant with my daughter I was a happy size “9” (but was trying to get back to a size 5) and when I got pregnant with my last child I was a not so happy size “11” and now you can see where I am going with this right (*eyes twitching* and looking around to see WHO is giving me a dirty look)… Plus I absolutely HATED the fact that my belly was like a sign for strange people to get into my personal space, and lets not forget about the labor and delivery aspect of it all…
    Ok so the best part about being pregnant was the fact I have 3 little gorgeous kiddos to raise into awesomeness, AND my husband did (and still does) all of the laundry (some habits don’t need to change, HAHA!) and people fixed me any and everything I wanted… (again all selfish reasons but at least I can admit it and not feel too guilty about it)

    So anyways what I am trying to say is, I really enjoy reading your posts and I can’t wait to get my hands on the Ebony magazine 🙂

  13. I love being pregnant after the first trimester. I love when I start to show and start to feel kicks from the baby. It’s also exciting to not have to worry about not having a washboard!

  14. Okay, so I wasn’t feeling being pregnant (not being able to breathe, sleep at night, or see my feet), but I do love the results. Having a wonderful miracle afterwards is the best reward for all that “suffering.” Of course my husband would say differently, he loved my pregnant self…go figure.

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