When you walk into my parents’ house, you’ll quickly find the baby announcements for both my brother and me in the living room. They’re not in a scrapbook or a photo album.
Our baby announcements are framed on the wall like a piece of art, perfectly positioned in between numerous photo collages and touches of African artwork. That’s because our baby announcements weren’t small cards or postcards; they’re actually magazine covers, inspired by EBONY.
A little dramatic? Absolutely.
When I tell people about these EBONY-inspired baby announcements, I joke my parents were very Afrocentric back in the ’80s and ’90s, which is true, especially when you see the size of their Afros in photos.
But when I talked with my mom about the origin story of these designs, it became clear that these baby announcements weren’t just a crafty project. These celebratory notices were a physical declaration of a prayer answered not once but twice in my parents’ lives.
You see, my parents were in their late 30’s when they had me and in their 40’s when they had my younger brother, Kendall. All of this during a time when most married couples were getting pregnant and building a family almost immediately after tying the knot.
She told me, “We prayed to have you, and we prayed when we had you.”
These announcements also captured a life-changing transition: from husband and wife to mom and dad, titles my parents would carry forever—no matter what.
“It’s a pretty big deal to go from not being a parent to being a parent,” said my mom. “I think that’s the biggest transition for any adult, probably bigger than getting married or people passing on from you, because once you become a parent, your perspective is different.”
That’s why when I was born, my mom told me it was too big a deal to get some prepackaged baby announcements. She knew she had to create something tailor-made, something that was as memorable as this occasion.
While waiting to meet with a designer at a local print shop, my mom said she noticed a baby announcement inspired by a Life magazine cover, and she thought it was a great idea.
“A magazine cover would be very personalized,” she said.
Naturally, it didn’t take long for my mom and my late grandma, who was shopping with her, to decide that they would use EBONY as the inspiration to design my baby announcement. My late father agreed.
In a way, this was an acknowledgment of EBONY’s deep roots and connections within the Black community, and an appreciation for the publication’s unapologetic commitment to showcasing the full depth of the Black experience in living color for the world to see. Because by the late ‘80s, EBONY had been around for more than four decades, making it the standard for Black media in print.
Just like a real EBONY magazine cover, my “front page” had all the important headlines like my name, birthday, measurements, and captions about the meanings of my first and middle names, along with a “cover photo” of little me in the arms of my mother and late father. The “first edition” of its kind.
Years later, my parents created a “second issue” EBONY magazine baby announcement for my younger brother, Kendall, with a similar format. Naturally, I made another appearance on the front page as a very proud big sister, smiling as wide as possible with joy, holding my new little brother for the world to see.
As a family, we moved a few times over the years, so my parents framed both of our baby announcements, outfitting them in colorful frames with matching matte backgrounds.
Looking back at these announcements now, I’m reminded how deeply my story intertwines with EBONY. I share the same birth month as the magazine, and in many ways, it seems fitting that my introduction to the world was inspired by a publication that transformed how Black people are seen—and that my own career path would eventually lead me into journalism.
It’s a story that couldn’t have been written any other way.
Kirstin Garriss is an award-winning reporter and writer based in Washington, D.C.