For every African woman, hair and skin tone are very sensitive subjects. Based on the notion that your skin tone qualifies you as beautiful or not, many young girls and women face self-esteem issues because of this touchy subject. However, many have taken bullying, personal insecurities and low self-esteem issues all in stride in the quest of achieving total self-confidence.
One shining example of how to reclaim one’s insecurities and make them points to celebrate, is the Senegalese 19-year-old model named Khoudia Diop. In an interview with HuffingtonPost Diop a first year university student shared some of her expereinces with bullying. She told the magazine “I was picked on by other kids, when I was a bit younger because [of the darkness] of my skin tone. But this is something that is actually quite normal in Senegal. It’s not a nice feeling and I’ve had to learn to love myself more every day and tune out the negativity, which helps a lot!”
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After landing a modeling contract with The Coloured Girl Inc. Diop’s story continues to inspire many who deal with matters of self-acceptance. She told HuffingtonPost, “I’ve learned to ignore the negative people and just be a living example of confidence and self-love. I let my life, and success, speak for itself.” With an increase in bleaching products in the market, many young girls and women resort to using lightening creams to alter the color of their skin. According to Takepart.com the skin bleaching industry makes an average of $10 Billion a year.
Khoudia Diop continues to light up her Instagram feed with inspiring images of her and other women embracing their full beings in her continued work with The Coloured Girl Inc .
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