Actress and poet Amber Tamblyn is expecting her first child with her Jewish comedian husband David Cross. The “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants“ actress revealed they are welcoming a daughter in a piece for Glamour.
The 33-year-old wrote of her own mother–and recalled how she told her mother about her own sexual assault. Sadly, her mother shared a similar story of trauma with her, and how Tamblyn’s grandmother’s response was “Boys will be boys,” a phrase people still say today. I can attest to this only too well as a survivor myself.
Because of this, Tamblyn wrote how she wants to be a different kind of mother:
“Motherhood has been heavily on my mind because I am going to be a mother soon. I’m pregnant, with a daughter on the way. I think constantly about the world I am bringing her into. Will I get a phone call from my daughter someday, one she never wanted to make? Will I have to share with her my story, and the story of her great-grandmother’s words to her grandmother?
I’ve been thinking about motherhood a lot lately. What it means to be one, what it means to have one, what it means to know one, what it means to make decisions as one and have conversations as one. I am very lucky to be surrounded by strong mothers, from my own mom to some of my best friends — those who are raising young women to accept themselves and those who are raising young men to accept women.”
Of course, the actress mentions how the current political climate is also causing her anxiety about the birth of her daughter:
“Is it possible to protect her from inheriting this pain? How much do I have to do, as a daughter and a soon-to-be mother, to change not just the conversation about how women are seen, but the language with which conversations are spoken in?”
She adds that she wants to bring her daughter up in a new kind of future–one where she doesn’t have to fear for her safety:
“A future where being a mother is less about warning our daughters about our sons and is instead lifting them up to their greatest potential. A future where my girl will someday say, ‘Donald who?’ and think nothing is revolutionary about a woman becoming President. A future where she can’t even believe that was ever even a thing.”
Tamblyn wed actor and comedian Cross, 52, in 2012 after a August 2011 engagement. Mazel tov to the growing family.
Read More:
Bracing Myself Against My Son’s Severe Mental Illness
Why I Don’t Want My Children to Grow Up in a Safe Space
Orthodox Women Take On ‘Vagina Monologues’ & Make it Their Own
