Recently Brandy revealed that she struggled to love her brown skin. Her thoughts echoed those of Kelly Rowland who also struggled to do the same. There are countless stories told by women who were once little girls struggling to love themselves. Despite being told that they were beautiful, most often by their parents, they struggled to see their beauty.
Despite her insecurities, Brandy says she was finally able to accept her body through the tried-and-true cliché method: loving yourself from the inside out.
For some women; however, the journey to self-love and acceptance takes even longer and the insecurities felt can be passed on to the next generation. As we work to teach our daughters to love and value themselves it is important that we help them to see that they are beautiful. While our hope is that they will be beautiful on the inside, it is important that they realize that the person staring back at them in the mirror is beautiful no matter what the shade of brown her skin. For more on this story visit Ebony.
BMWK — How are you helping your children to love their brown skin?
Faced with raising my children in a predominantly white area, years ago I bought a little statue of a boy who looks like us, hugging his dog, with an inscription across the bottom, “Black is Beautiful”. I placed that in their bathroom next to the huge mirror, as a reminder. I bought ONLY brown dolls for my 3 girls, even made some over the years, and went to the ends of the Earth to find them!
We NEVER used the N word in our home, and lastly my children found out about the paper bag test at college. If we are to raise children who feel confident in their skin, it is lunacy for us to believe that we can verbalize some perceived value/ lack thereof to different shades within our race. I raised my children to remember that God creates each of us, uniquely and in His image. I reminded them that in the neighborhood we live in, you WILL stick out. It is far better to achieve something great, and use your uniqueness as a tool to be remembered.