Melanin is responsible for determining the color of the hair, eyes and skin. The historical exposure to the sun of a population increases its melanin levels resulting in black or brown skin tones -that is why it also protects from UV radiation. If you have freckles, it means your melanin production is concentrated in small areas of your body.
And some women have too much melanin in their skin…wait! What?
At least that is the message we get from the beauty industry: #BlackGirlMagic is unappreciated and even insulted when celebrities such as Lupita Nyong’o or Kerry Washington, whose 2014 Vanity Fair and 2015 InStyle covers respectively, were photoshopped too many shades lighter.
There is an increasing number of girls around the world looking for permanent skin lightening treatments like South African singer Nomasonto Mnisi, best known as Mshoza, who openly declared to the BBC she bleached her skin because “I wanted to see what it would be like to be white and I’m happy”.
It is actually not surprising more girls want to become whiter after going through years of derogatory name- calling due to their skin tone. Oscar winner actress, Viola Davis, grew up thinking she was ugly because she was taunted and called the ‘n’ word countless times. Senegalese model Khoudia Diop almost tried some lightening creams after being embarrassed with the question “Why do you want to be that dark?” Fortunately, Davis and Diop learned to love themselves the way they are.
No matter what side of the melanin spectrum you are, don’t hate but celebrate your complexion. There is no such thing as too dark or even too white, there is only beautiful shades of color that make this world, and you, more interesting. As Diop, the Melanin Goddess, says:
“The message I have for my sisters is that how you look doesn’t matter as long as you feel beautiful inside.”
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