The Age of Confidence

I was lucky enough to have an essay of mine included in a book called:
"Age of Confidence."
Age of Confidence is a collection of essays written by forty women ages thirty-five and over.
Each piece is written from the perspective of having gained confidence due to years of life experiences, both good and bad.
But really at what age does the
'age of confidence' start?
My sister sent me this picture last night. It is a picture of her when she was nine.
She is the one wearing the sunglasses.
As I looked at this picture it suddenly dawned on me--
confidence starts at a very young age.
You see, my sister Karen has Cleidocranial Dysostosis.
Because of it the bones in her skull, her clavicles and her teeth never developed normally.
And yet Karen never let it slow her down.
She always played volleyball, swam, ran and in the recent years
has taken up cycling defying odds with her determination and endurance.
My mother with
unconditional consistency,
encouragement and
the foresight to overlook the fact that Karen had a soft head,
loved her enough to let her go.
As a mom what this means to me is that the time is now.
My daughters are not going to chance upon their age of confidence miraculously when they hit their forties. It is up to their parents, teachers, adults and environment that surround them to establish the basis for their confidence.