The days are getting longer, temperature is rising and the latest trends seem to show nothing but skin. Guess what? It’s finally summer! For those of us gifted with skin that gets a shade darker the moment we go outside, it’s easy to see why we’d want to cover up despite the temperature. While I don’t recommend sitting in the sun long enough to burn, there’s nothing wrong with being dark.
With Western fashion trends taking over the media – one scroll down the Vogue.in main page will tell you as much – the ideal woman has fair skin and it has been that way for a very long time. Most girls out there are guilty of noticing something they want to change when they look at their reflection or an image of themselves, but your skin color definitely shouldn’t be viewed as a flaw. Does your favorite celebrity seem impossibly white? She probably is. A lot of the whiteness is from tricks of photography and Photoshop. It’s unrealistic.
The media lightens images, suggesting that lighter is more beautiful while shaming Bollywood actresses who have been rumored to seek out skin-lightening treatments. An important question to ask yourself is “If it’s natural, how is it wrong?” It isn’t. It makes you yourself. Your skin color is a wonderful shade telling the story of your family’s history.
If you can reflect upon yourself and see that you have a good mind and a good heart, that isn’t a product of the color of your skin. Your intelligence isn’t labelled as a shade. It also doesn’t matter the color of the skin on the model in a magazine – if you like her clothes then wear them!
Allure magazine had a list of 41 influential women of color where only three women featured were of Indian background. The three featured were Priyanka Chopra, Lilly Singh and Padma Lakshmi, but Chopra’s feature was what stood out to me the most:
I’ve achieved what I’ve achieved, and skin color has nothing to do with it…”
As a woman who is making headlines globally because of her role in Baywatch, it might be something to consider when looking in the mirror and seeing someone too dark or too light looking back at you. You’re perfect in whatever skin color you have. Take advantage of the summer trends happening right now and show off the color you were given.
Thanks for reading!
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