Race; Lupita Nyong'o

Lupita Nyong'o

For a very long time in my life, I avoided anything to do with my race: 'black' music, 'black' slang, black history....I even felt uncomfortable with saying "I am black" or identifying with other black people unless they were already my friends.

I didn't want to be black, I wanted to be like all of my other, prettier friends. They had beautiful, long, flowing hair and looked like angels compared to me, I thought. I would rather be a very mediocre-looking white girl than an above-average black girl. But I didn't know that back then....well, more like I refused to accept it.

When I was younger, I knew that I was avoiding anything to do with my skin colour, but I never admitted it to myself or anyone else. I covered it up in excuses, saying that it wasn't my fault that I grew up in a culture surrounded by white people...so how else was I supposed to act? I straighten my hair but so what? It's easier to handle. I prefer white dolls to black because that's just what's available. These things involved some truth, but I would always avoid thinking about any ulterior motives.

I am 24-years-old and I only started feeling secure about my skin colour in my 24th year, and I'm still not totally there yet.

Black = inferior, ugly, undesired.

How horrible does that look? But that's what my mind was polluted with.

I hated black, I hated myself. I wanted to be lighter, I wanted to get away from dark.

This eagerly brings me to Lupita Nyong'o.

This speech by Lupita about wanting to be lighter when she was younger, about praying to God to wake up lighter several times a night, about seeing white people everywhere and feeling ugly.....I felt this; I felt this hard.

It wasn't until she saw Alek Wek, a dark-skinned, supermodel that she felt comfort in her own skin.

In the video, Lupita shares her experiences and encourages people who feel the same to realise that they are beautiful, no matter how dark they are.

This is the most inspirational speech I think I've ever seen about race. By existing in the public eye as a very dark skinned, beautiful, talented (talent that is recognised by the masses) woman...she's already showing black girls that skin colour doesn't always hold you back, but to make a speech about it was incredibly important.

Girls of colour have it tough - not only are we bombarded with the 'perfect body' that everyone else is, we're also over-exposed to white skin, white features, white beauty.

It's a white world. A lot of black celebrities are lightened up, whether that's with photo manipulation or skin lightening products...so for Lupita, dark as she is, to speak out about this puts my own (and many other black girls') skin colour into perspective. I am lighter than Lupita, but that doesn't mean that I'm happy to be lighter anymore, I'm happy to be black.

She has proven that black can be incredibly, mindblowingly beautiful.

Lupita knows first-hand how much this will mean to us; it's her turn to carry the torch and bring warmth to the heart of every insecure black girl out there...because, shit, we really need it sometimes, more than people seem to realise.

So, thank you Lupita Nyong'o. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.