Truth transforms: Tabitha and Choyce Brown share the secret behind their bond

In the final installment of DeVon Franklin's fireside chat with Tabitha and Choyce Brown, the mother-daughter influencers discuss how they maintain their close relationship.

For many, the relationship between parent and child is the closest they’ll ever experience. For others, it can be … complicated. It takes effort, empathy and acceptance to maintain that bond over time, and many find it only gets more difficult as children grow up and families grow apart.

Image: theGrio

So how do Tabitha Brown and her 20-year-old daughter Choyce remain so close? (Spoiler: it’s not their strong resemblance.) The mother-daughter influencers recently sat down for a “fireside chat” with author and motivational speaker DeVon Franklin to celebrate his first release with Audible, “It Takes a Woman.” There, they discussed how they not only maintain but continually strengthen their bond.

While Choyce says regular check-ins with her mother always reconnect them when they’re feeling distant, her mother pointed to a deeper component of their communication. “For me, it’s honesty,” says Tabitha, “and the honesty has to start within … [I have to] tell myself the truth about how I feel about something so that my daughter can also be truthful with me … I think that when we are honest with each other, we have no choice but to communicate.”

Their host agrees, giving us a gem of a takeaway: “Truth transforms.” You can hear more from Franklin and the final part of his five-part discussion with Tabitha and Choyce Brown in our video at the top of this story — and you can check out “It Takes a Woman” on Audible.


Maiysha Kai is theGrio’s lifestyle editor, covering all things Black and beautiful. Her work is informed by two decades’ experience in fashion and entertainment, great books and aesthetics, and the brilliance of Black culture. She is also the editor-author of Body (Words of Change series).


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