Being brown-skinned is something I have struggled with from the very start. From my mother dragging me to beauty parlors to have my skin bleached when I had barely turned 11, to being told by my English teacher during auditions that I couldn’t play Ophelia in the Hamlet play because I didn’t fit in the “fair and beautiful” role (in all honesty I was glad later I didn’t get to play a damsel in distress) and “concerned” cousins and friends telling me that I needed to resort to fairness creams in order to stand out in life.
These daily struggles led me to believe I had a disability of sorts or that I was shrouded by a cloak of ugly. My confidence was shattered. Appearing in pictures that would then be uploaded on social media became a living nightmare. My skincare regime started becoming all about buying these expensive whitening creams.
Brown-Skinned Cultural
These actions were further supported by the fact that while growing up I barely had any brown-skinned cultural references on the TV to draw inspiration from. All my barbies were white. All the brides getting married around me were dolled up in white plaster, sorry, foundation to appear beautiful for their husbands.
The recent wave of woke brown-skinned girls finally speaking out for themselves and bashing fairness creams along with women of color asking for equal representation on all platforms, finally helped me realize the truth that it wasn’t me who was defective. I was brown, beautiful, attractive, warm, and that I counted for such a beautiful contrast that made me naturally stand out against anything and anyone. Also, like Queen B says in one of my favorite songs:
“Brown skin girl, ya skin just like pearls
The best thing about the world
I never trade you for anybody else, sayOh, have you looked in the mirror lately?
Wish you could trade eyes with me
There’s complexities in complexion
But your skin, it glows like diamonds”
1. Tanning sprays? Got enough melanin for a lifetime
All that fuss about tanning sprays, lotions, creams and even, tanning beds and spas. Thank goodness I will never need any of those! My brown skin sure helps me save time, effort and money. Plus, if you’ve ever watched the Final Destination movie where those two poor girls get into those tanning beds and are brutally burnt *shudders*
2. Sunburn? *Grabs the nearest dictionary to look that up*
I have been living in Karachi ALL MY LIFE where temperatures can soar to 50 C in summers. Yet, I have never once been sunburnt in my life, given that I literally slather on extra layers of sunblock. My brown skin is as tough as I am and getting sunburnt is not on the table. Headaches, heat-strokes and dehydration are.
3. Who needs anti-wrinkle creams?
Will you still love me when I am no longer young and beautiful? YES. Because it will take us brown-skinned girls longer than usual for signs of aging to start showing. I look like I just graduated from College although I am 28 years old, which is why people don’t take me seriously. Just kidding! So my future looks pretty bright knowing that I’ll still be a youthful 51.
4. Always a step ahead of Skin Cancer
Our beautiful melanin acts like a natural sunscreen blocking UV radiation from damaging DNA and potentially causing skin cancer. Of course, it does not mean that darker-skinned people will never get skin cancer (SUNSCREEN IS NEVER A BAD IDEA) — but the chances are lessened. Well then, I got 99 problems but melanin ain’t one.
5. Brown girls, UNITE!
The list of brown-skinned beauties is endless — Nandita Das, Sanam Saeed, Michelle Obama, Beyonce, Zendaya. With such brown glorious women around us that are changing the world in their own respective fields, young dark-skinned girls finally have the correct ideals to aspire to.
Here’s to being unfair & lovely women of the world!
