you said people thought this was an area you shouldn t be exposing. why did you feel that? i can put it to you this way. i think we suffer from things that we do not want to talk about and keep hidden within our communities. an elderly lady at the apollo theater when i screened the film there and asked why i was exposing all of our dirty laundry. i said ma am, with all do respect, because it s stinking up the house. powerful way to put it. on the cover is this girl. in 2014 she gave the speech at the essence hollywood black event. she said she remembered a time she felt unbeautiful, put on tv and saw pale skin. she got teased and taunted for her skin.
sweet and salty nut bars by nature valley. nature at its most delicious. racism and bias this week, something really wonderful happened. ta beautiful woman redefined beauty, teaching us all to celebrate rather than fear our differences. oscar winner lupita nyong o is not the first black woman to be named to people most beautiful people. but she is the first with dark skin and african features to be so celebrated by the mainstream and that s a huge deal. because as she herself described an event earlier this year, too many little girls are made to feel less than or not valued because of their skin color. i remember a time when i too felt unbeautiful. i put on the tv and only saw
people magazine s most beautiful list, and this morning, they announced the most beautiful person of them all, naming lupita nyong o the academy award winning star of twelve years a slave as this year s cover girl. it s been a whirlwind of a year for the 31-year-old actress. she took home the oscar in february for her first feature film and last month cosmetics giant lancome announced lupita would become the first black beauty ambassador, but people s most beautiful person didn t always feel that way. she recently spoke personally about that at essence s magazine s luncheon. i remember when i, too, felt unbeautiful. i turned on the tv and only saw pale skin. i got teased and taunted about my night-shaded skin, and my one
her a new way of seeing themselves. i received a letter from a girl. and i d like to share just a small part of it with you. dear lupita, it reads. i think you re really lucky to be this black but yet this successful in hollywood overnight. i was just about to buy dentures, whitening cream to lighten my skin when you appeared on the world map and saved me. . my heart bled a little when i read those words. i could not guess my first job out of school would be so powerful in and of itself in that it would propel me to be such an image of hope in the same way that the women of the color purple were to me. i remember a time when i too felt unbeautiful. i put on the tv and only saw pale skin. i got teased and taunted about my night-shaded skin. and my one prayer to god, the
such an image of hope in the same way that the women of the color purple were to me. i remember a time when i too felt unbeautiful. i put on the tv and only saw pale skin. i got teased and taunted about my night-shaded skin. and my one prayer to god, the miracle worker, was that i would wake up lighter skinned. the morning would come, and i would be so excited about seeing my new skin that i would refuse to look down at myself until i was in front of a mirror because i wanted to see my fair face first. and every day i experienced the same disappointment of being just as dark as i had been the day before. i tried to negotiate with god. i told him i would stop stealing sugar cubes at night if he gave me what i wanted. i would listen to my mother s every word sitting right there, and never lose my school sweater again if he just made me a little lighter.