The Student Resource Building was filled with colorful flowers, pastries and decorative stationery for the UC Santa Barbara Women’s Center’s “Bouquets of Self-Love” event on Feb. 4.

Students picked out flowers and greenery for bouquets to take home after the event. Hanna Olson / Daily Nexus

Students who registered picked out flowers and greenery for bouquets to take home after the event. Participants had complimentary snacks while decorating their bouquets and writing letters of self-love and appreciation to themselves.

Women’s Center programmer and fourth-year pharmacology major Jada Brooks planned the first Bouquets of Self-Love event last year, and planned it this year in collaboration with other Women’s Center programmers. Around 155 students attended the event, compared to 90 last year.

“The purpose of having the event was just to practice self-love, and we frame all of our events with the feminist perspective,” Brooks said. “In order to do that, I talked about how in society, women are held to unrealistic standards, specifically in the world of beauty and capitalism.”

Brooks said that the event also aimed to remind attendees that self-love is an act of “self-preservation” for women, rather than an act of vanity.

“In society, oftentimes women that do love themselves and have a lot of confidence are told that they’re conceited or that they’re ‘too much,’” Brooks said. “We’re trying to reframe that narrative and say ‘That’s not true,’ and that self-love is radical and important.”

Brooks said that for her, self-love means reframing what society tells her and other women about how they should view themselves.

“I may look in the mirror and say ‘Oh, I don’t look good today.’ But then I have to know, that’s the thought I have because that’s what society has ingrained in me,” Brooks said. “Self-love isn’t just about beauty, it’s also just about accepting who you are.”

Second-year psychological & brain sciences major Amy Cunningham said that for her, self-love means “exploring yourself and trying to figure out who you are instead of trying to conform to what other people want you to be.”

She said she attended Bouquets of Self-Love last year and enjoyed the event enough to come back with second-year marine biology major Nikki Murnane this year.

Both students said they were excited to take home beautiful bouquets to display in their rooms for a pop of color and joy.

“The note writing is really cute too,” Cunningham said. “I feel like a lot of people don’t really think of doing nice things [for themselves] but it’s cool that they put emphasis on it.”

Murnane and Cunningham both emphasized compassion for oneself as an essential aspect of self-love, which they said they expressed in their letters.

“I’m gonna say that I appreciate myself for trying, and I need to recognize that I don’t need to be perfect all the time,” Murnane said. “Just to be trying is good enough, and trying my best and waking up every day is a good start.”

Besides taking home bouquets, Cunningham and Murnane said they’ve set new goals for practicing self-love in their day-to-day lives.

“I want to start going on more walks because it’s a good time to reflect and take a break from everything,” Cunningham said.

Murnane said that taking home a bouquet reminded her of the importance of taking time for herself and gifting herself things that make her happy, rather than “waiting for someone else to do it.”

Brooks said that she was happy to see the impact of the event on the students who attended.

“Hopefully it made someone’s day,” Brooks said.

A version of this article appeared on p.4 of the Feb. 13, 2025 edition of the Daily Nexus.