Raven covers Jet Magazine

Raven-Symoné is covering the newest issue of Jet Mag. The star told the weekly mag that she won’t change for fame and speaks on her image perception:
‘When I look in the mirror and see how voluptuously fabulous I am, I can’t even worry about it. I am just fabulous.’”

Congrats Miss Texas...now Miss USA!

A 26-year-old entrepreneur from Texas was named Miss USA on Friday, beating 50 other beauty queens for the coveted crown. She said she was eager to travel and spread her message of self-improvement to young women. She noted she was one of only a handful of black woman crowned Miss USA in the pageant's 57-year history.

12 year-old making $5,000 with her own business

Leanna Archer, an honor student in Islip, N.Y., was 8 when she first tried to make a batch of homemade, natural hair products just like her mom's. Soon she began selling them in the neighborhood and then to stores.
Today the 12-year-old Leanna is the owner and CEO of Leanna's Inc., which sells hair-oil treatments, shampoos, conditioners and deep conditioners. Her products are sold online and in stores across the country, and she expects 2008 revenues to reach $150,000 -- up from $45,000 in 2007

Leanna works seven days a week to keep her business going. On weekends, she makes and packages the products at home with her parents' help. During the week -- after completing her homework -- she packs boxes for the orders she receives daily on her Web site.

A Whole New Level of Line Dancing

You thought you were the ish when you bust out with the Cupid Shuffle or the Mississippi slide, right? Well check out this line dance, and let me know if you can make it to this level. I've watched it like three times and I can't even begin to figure it out!

High School Musical 3 starts filming in April

The "High School Musical" gang is returning to Utah this month for their senior year.
Unlike its predecessors, the third installment in the series will be filmed during the school year at East High School in Salt Lake City.

Salt Lake City School District spokesman Jason Olsen says setting up will begin in a couple weeks and shooting will start toward the end of the month. He says much of the filming for "High School Musical 3: Senior Year" will take place before and after school to minimize disruptions.The first two movies brought $8 million and 180 jobs to the state during filming. The third project is slated to cost $13 million.

New Music: Ashanti

Have you seen Ashanti's new video? We love the song but the video is pretty creepy! She is set to release her new album, Declaration, on June 3rd and her new single will be out pretty soon. We love Ashanti!

What's really going on? Third graders plan to attack their teacher!

This is why all of you need to grab a child and be a mentor! Think of it as community service!

A group of third-graders in Georgia plotted to attack their teacher, bringing a broken steak knife, handcuffs, duct tape and other items for the job and assigning children tasks including covering the windows and cleaning up afterward, police said Tuesday.

The plot involving as many as nine boys and girls at Center Elementary School in south Georgia was a serious threat, Waycross Police Chief Tony Tanner said.

School officials alerted police Friday after a pupil tipped off a teacher that a girl had brought a weapon to school. Tanner said the students apparently planned to knock the teacher unconscious with a crystal paperweight, bind her with the handcuffs and tape and then stab her with the knife.

Nine children have been given discipline up to and including long-term suspension, said Theresa Martin, spokeswoman for the Ware County school system. She would not be more specific but said none of the children had been back to school since the case came to light.

The purported target is a veteran educator who teaches third-grade students with learning disabilities, including attention deficit disorder, delayed development and hyperactivity, friends and parents said.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23905909/?GT1=43001

Study: Black students aren't graduating! Don't be a statistic!

Three out of 10 US public school students do not graduate from high school, and major city school districts only graduate one out of two students, according to a study released Tuesday.

In a report on graduation rates around the country, the EPE Research Center and the America Promise Alliance also showed that the high school graduation rate -- finishing 12 grades of school -- in big cities falls to as low as just 34.6 percent in Baltimore, Maryland, and barely over 40 percent for the troubled Ohio cities of Columbus and Cleveland.

And it said that black and native American student's have effectively a one-in-two chance of getting a high school diploma.

"Only about one-half (52 percent) of students in the principal school systems of the 50 largest cities complete high school with a diploma."

Based on 2003-2004 data, the report said that across the country the graduation average for public school students is 69.9 percent, with the best success rate in suburbs -- 74.9 percent -- and rural districts -- 73.2 percent.

Asian-Americans score the highest graduation rate, at 80 percent, with whites at 76.2 percent and Hispanics at 57.8 percent.

Women graduate at a much higher rate than men, 73.6 percent to 66.0 percent.

In the country's city schools, the study found that in urban areas generally, just 60.4 percent graduate, and in the principal school districts of the top 50 cities, barely half graduate.

Detroit, Michigan's main school district scored a graduation rate of 24.9 percent.

New York, the country's largest city, has a graduation rate for its main school district of 45.2 percent, and Los Angeles, the second largest, of 45.3 percent.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080401/lf_afp/useducationsociety

Random: Can You believe it...these are cakes!

I just thought these were the cutest things ever!! Sorry, these are specially made, you can't buy them in the stories. But they sure are nice to look at!

Random: Don't Try this at home!

Attention ladies: As you all know, I am all for having a positive self image and being confident in the skin we're in, but this is NOT appropriate!!! If you look like this when you leave your home, you need to change! There are clothes that fit every body type. Everyone cannot wear the latest trends out! This is just too much! I know big girls need some love too but for real? Remember--not all attention is good attention!

Did you Know? Nigeria's Next Top Model

I know I'm really late on this one but did you know they had Next Top Model in Nigeria? I really can't find the website any more but I think that this is a great competition to have in Nigeria because it will showcase the real beauty in Africa. I really love ANTM so hopefully I can find more info on this!!

The New New: Koreans get with the 'fro!!!

This is why we all need to remember...BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL! The newest rage in South Korea is turning their naturally straight hair into afros!!! Stylists are able to use a chemical process to add kinks to their straight hair. Now it's time we should embrace our culture a little bit more, don't you think?

Old School: Imitation of Life

Imitation of Life was a movie that me and my friends watched all of the time in college. We watched this movie like it was the newest blockbuster out. It is indeed a classic.

Imitation of Life is a actually a remake set in 1947, when Lora Meredith, a struggling white widow with plans to become a famous Broadway actress, loses track of her young daughter Suzie, and requests the help of a stranger named Steve Archer to help her find the girl. Suzie is found and looked after by Annie Johnson, a black widow with a daughter, Sarah Jane, who is about Suzie's age and, unlike her mother, is very light-skinned to the point of appearing Caucasian. In return for her kindness, Lora takes Annie in temporarily. Despite the fact that Lora cannot afford a nanny, Annie persuades Lora to let her stay and take care of Suzie, so that Lora can pursue an acting career.

Lora's tight focus on her career also prevents her from spending time with her daughter, who sees more of Annie than she does her own mother. Annie and Sarah Jane have their own struggles, as the light-skinned Sarah Jane is in a constant state of turmoil over her identity and steadfastly wants to pass for white. Sarah Jane's anger at being black translates into animosity towards her long-suffering mother.

The film progresses to 1958, finding Lora as a highly regarded Broadway star living in a luxurious mansion in upstate New York. After rejecting David's latest script, Lora takes a role in a dramatic film. At the show's after-party, she meets Steven, whom she hasn't seen in a decade. The two slowly begin rekindling their relationship, and Steve is reintroduced to Annie and the now-teenaged Suzie and Sarah Jane. When Lora is signed to star in an Italian motion picture, she leaves Steve to watch after Suzie, and the teenager develops an unrequited crush on her mother's boyfriend.

Adolescence has not stopped Sarah Jane from attempting to pass for white: she begins dating a white boy, who severely beats her after learning she is black. Some time later, Sarah Jane passes in order to get a job performing at a seedy nightclub, and lies to Annie and tells her she is working at the library. When Annie learns the truth and appears to claim her daughter, Sarah Jane is fired, and Sarah Jane's subsequent dismissal of her mother's care begins taking a physical toll on Annie. Lora returns from her trip to Italy to find that Sarah Jane has run away from home, and has Steve hire a detective to find her. The detective locates Sarah Jane in California, living as a white woman under an assumed name and working as a chorus girl. Annie, becoming weaker and more depressed by the day, flies out to California to see her daughter one last time and say goodbye.
After a confrontation with her mother, Suzie decides to go away to school in Denver, Colorado to forget about Steve. Not soon after Suzie leaves, however, the now gravely ill Annie passes away, presumably "of a broken heart".

As per her last wishes, Annie is given a lavish funeral in a large church, complete with a gospel choir (and a solo by gospel star Mahalia Jackson) and a parade-like procession with a horse-drawn hearse. Just before the procession begins, however, a remorseful Sarah Jane tears through the audience and throws herself upon her mother's casket, begging forgiveness. Lora takes Sarah Jane to their limousine to join her, Suzie, and Steve as the procession slowly travels through the city.

Make this your next Netflix pick!

Are you a leader...probably so!

A survey found that half of white children do not view themselves as leaders, compared to two-thirds of minority children who believe they are leaders.

The Girl Scouts of the USA study released Thursday found that 75 percent of African-American children and young Hispanic females currently consider themselves to be leaders, compared to about 50 percent of white children who see themselves as leaders.

Experts said minority females are more likely to value their capabilities because they typically have higher levels of responsibility in the community and at home. Children described leaders as individuals who value team work, defend their principles and attempt to better the world, The Washington Post reported. The children reportedly contradicted themselves when they mostly identified with the classic top-down leadership style.

Judy Schoenberg, research director for the Girl Scouts, said the children "see a disconnect between what they aspire to and what is."