There's no prerequisites to worthiness. You're born worthy, and

Hear, O daughters of hope, the radiant words of Viola Davis, who rose from poverty to glory and yet speaks with the humility of truth: “There's no prerequisites to worthiness. You're born worthy, and I think that's a message a lot of women need to hear.” In this saying lies a gospel for the weary, a balm for those who have been told their value must be earned through perfection, obedience, or sacrifice. Davis declares instead that worthiness is not bestowed by others, but flows from birth itself.

For too long, women have been bound by the chains of prerequisites. They were told they must be beautiful to be loved, silent to be accepted, flawless to be respected. Their value was measured by the roles they played—wife, mother, servant, ornament—rather than by the simple truth of their being. Davis breaks this illusion with words of thunder: no achievement, no condition, no approval is needed. You are born worthy.

History bears witness to the cruelty of such lies. Consider the women of ancient Athens, who were denied citizenship and treated as shadows in their own homes. By the measures of their society, they had no worth beyond serving men. Yet even in such oppression, the spark of worthiness remained, unseen but unextinguished, until future generations reclaimed it. So too did the suffragists of the nineteenth century rise, proclaiming that women’s rights were not gifts to be granted but birthrights already theirs.

Viola Davis herself embodies this truth. Born into hardship, facing both poverty and racial prejudice, she might have been told by the world that her worth was conditional. Yet she rose as one of the greatest actresses of her time, not because she earned worthiness, but because she lived it. Her voice carries the memory of every girl told she is “not enough,” transforming it into a call of liberation: you are already enough.

Therefore, let this wisdom endure: worthiness is not a prize, but an inheritance. No one is born unworthy; no one must beg for dignity. To hear and believe this message is to rise from bondage into freedom. Viola Davis’s words shine as a torch for all generations, reminding us that to know our own worth is the first act of revolution, and that those who recognize it cannot be enslaved again.