plantkween

A Brooklyn-based Black queer non-binary kween
Obsessed with the botanical scene, hunny
Author of YOU, GROW GURL! 📚🪴🤓
Collabs: [email protected]
(3)

08/31/2026

I want a life I don’t have to keep recovering from.

One where joy isn’t reserved for vacations, peace isn’t waiting for the weekend, and rest doesn’t have to be earned.

A life with slow mornings and deep breaths. With work that means something and people who make staying awhile feel easy. With enough room for wonder to find me in the ordinary.

I know every day won’t be beautiful. Some seasons will still ask more of me than I’d like to give.

But perhaps a good life isn’t one we’re always trying to get away from.

Perhaps it’s one we keep choosing to come home to. 🌿

08/30/2026

There’s something about building a fire that I love. 🔥

The gathering. The arranging. The tending. The checking every 17 seconds to make sure she’s doing what I hoped she would do. 😂 And then, eventually, realizing there’s nothing left to do but sit down and let the fire be a fire.

Maybe that’s why I love a campfire so much. It reminds me that some things need our attention to get started, but not our constant interference to keep going.

Sometimes, you tend to the thing. Sometimes, you trust what you’ve tended to. 🔥

08/28/2026

A little love letter to Christopher John Rogers 🌈

One of the things I’ve always loved about Christopher John Rogers is the permission his clothes seem to give you: take up space.

The color. The exaggerated silhouettes. The stripes, dots, unexpected shapes and patterns that probably shouldn’t work together—but somehow sing when they do. There is a playfulness to his work that reminds me that getting dressed doesn’t always have to be about looking “flattering,” polished or even making sense. Sometimes fashion can simply be about curiosity.

Wearing his pieces has taught me to experiment more. Mix the patterns. Try the color you normally wouldn’t reach for. Play with proportion. Let something be oversized, sculptural, strange or dramatic. Put two things together just to see what happens.

Because personal style isn’t something you find by always getting it right. You discover it by trying things on—literally and figuratively.

Fashion can be a playground. And sometimes the best thing you can wear is your willingness to play.

08/27/2026

part of how I greet myself each morning. Nothing too complicated—just stretching, breathing, moving slowly, and checking in with the body that carries me through every single day.

There’s a reason it feels so good, too. Gentle morning movement can help loosen muscles and joints after sleep, increase circulation, and improve mobility—all while giving your nervous system a softer transition into the day.

I used to think a routine had to be ambitious to be meaningful. Now I’m learning that consistency can be quiet. Sometimes wellness is simply creating a small ritual that says: before I give this day my energy, I’m going to give some to myself.

Thanks lululemon for the fit 🩶

08/24/2026

I’ve had to learn that changing the plan doesn’t mean I failed the person I used to be. Sometimes the plan was simply made before I knew the fullness of who I could become.

There are dreams I once held tightly because they were the biggest dreams I knew how to dream at the time. And I’m grateful for them—they carried me here. But growth has a way of introducing you to possibilities your former self couldn’t yet imagine.

So I’m giving myself permission to want differently. To pivot without apology. To release timelines that no longer fit. To choose a bigger life when I realize I’ve been dreaming too small.

You do not owe an old version of yourself a future they created with limited information.

Honor the plan that got you here, hunny. Then have the courage to outgrow it. 🌱✨

08/23/2026

There is something tender about getting to care for the people who once cared for you.

I bought my dad his first real set of skincare products, and this morning I wanted to do more than simply hand him a bag of bottles and tell him to have at it. I wanted to sit with him, walk him through each step, explain what everything does, how much to use, and the order it all goes on.

THE MORNING SKINCARE LINEUP ☀️

1. Cleanser — removes oil, sweat, and buildup and gives everything else a clean canvas.
2. Toner Pads — gently refresh and prep the skin; depending on the formula, they may also exfoliate.
3. Hyaluronic Acid — draws in hydration and helps skin feel plumper. Apply to slightly damp skin when possible.
4. Vitamin C Brightening Cream/Serum — provides antioxidant support and helps brighten and even the appearance of skin tone.
5. Caffeine Eye Serum — helps with the appearance of puffiness and tired-looking under-eyes.
6. Moisturizer — seals in hydration and supports the skin barrier.
7. Sunscreen, SPF 30+ — always the final skincare step in the morning.

A lil skincare lesson. A lil quality time. A whole lotta love. 💚

08/22/2026

Fourteen years of living in New York City, and somewhere along the way I made a quiet little promise to myself: fill my walls with stories, not just stuff.

So much of the artwork in my home has been thrifted, found secondhand, or stumbled upon when I wasn’t looking for anything in particular. And that is precisely why I love it.

A few things I’ve learned along the treasure hunt:
🖼️ Don’t let a bad frame scare you off.
📏 Keep your wall measurements in your phone.
👀 Buy the piece that keeps pulling you back.

A few NYC spots worth exploring for secondhand art, furniture + home treasures:

• Housing Works
• City Opera Thrift Shop
• Vintage Thrift
• Furnish Green
• Dobbin St. Vintage Co-op
• Remix Market NYC
• Big Reuse
• renewfinds
• Humble House
• BEDFORD GALLERIES

Fourteen years later, my walls have become a little archive of things I found, loved, and gave another life. And I hope they never feel completely finished.

08/20/2026

Three boxes from LUAR arrived at my door, and opening each one felt a little like unwrapping art. 🖤

Founded by Brooklyn-born Dominican-American designer Raul Lopez, LUAR has always stood out to me for the way it blends New York energy, cultural memory, q***r expression, architecture, and a wonderfully unexpected point of view.

I’ve always appreciated receiving pieces from fashion houses because I don’t think of clothing as just clothing. I collect it like art—I care about the maker, the intention, the construction, and the story a piece carries before I ever put it on.

So I’m incredibly grateful to LUAR for trusting me with these pieces. Being invited to experience a designer’s work and interpret it through my own lens never feels ordinary.

Now comes my favorite part: making these pieces part of my own visual language. ✨

08/19/2026

HATERATION (noun): The peculiar resentment that arises when another person’s shine begins to feel like a personal inconvenience.

Popularized by Mary J. Blige’s 2001 anthem “Family Affair,” hateration combines hater with -ation—a suffix denoting a state, process, or condition. The construction gives something petty an almost ceremonial grandeur. Not simply hating, dahling. A whole condition of it.

You do not have to enter every room where your name is being discussed. You do not have to chase every version of yourself living in somebody else’s imagination. And you certainly do not have to abandon your garden because someone standing outside the gate has opinions about the flowers.

Keep blooming, hunny. Spectators have always had something to say about the garden they wish they could grow 🌼

08/17/2026

I’ve been thinking about how many times I’ve made myself smaller without even realizing I was doing it. Softened my excitement. Questioned my confidence. Made a dream sound less ambitious. Dimmed parts of myself because I could feel that my fullness made someone else uncomfortable.

And I’m learning that there is a difference between humility and self-erasure.

I have worked too hard to become this version of myself to keep negotiating how brightly I’m allowed to exist. The joy, the confidence, the creativity, the softness, the big dreams—all of it was hard-earned. None of it needs to be apologized for.

Not everyone will know what to do with your light. Some people will celebrate it. Some will be inspired by it. And some will meet it with their own shadows—comparison, projection, resentment, doubt. But their shadows are not instructions for you to become smaller.

I’m reminding myself that I can be generous without disappearing. I can be considerate without abandoning myself. I can take up space without explaining why I deserve to be there.

So I’m choosing to shine anyway, hunny. Not to prove anything. Not to outshine anybody. Simply because I refuse to spend another chapter of my life turning down my own light to make darkness more comfortable.

May we become so at home in our own brightness that dimming ourselves is no longer an option. ✨

Address

New York, NY

Website

https://www.harpercollins.com/pages/YouGrowGurl

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