Black is beautiful, period.
Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o gave a moving speech Sunday night at the 86th Annual Academy Awards after she took home the win for Best Supporting Actress in Steve McQueen’s, 12 Years a Slave. The gorgeous young actress was overcome with joy and even began tearing up during her emotional speech as the crowd continued to applaud her. Her beauty and humbled confidence was radiant. But for Nyong’o, accepting her skin color did not come easy as a youth. It was at Essence magazine’s seventh annual Black Women in Hollywood luncheon where Nyong’o revealed to a crowd full of people that she prayed for lighter skin as a child. It wasn’t until she discovered supermodel Alek Wek that Nyong’o began to really discover just how beautiful she was.
“She was dark as night and was in all the magazines and on runways,” Nyong’o said at the luncheon. “My complexion had always been an obstacle to overcome. I couldn’t believe that people were embracing a woman who looked so much like me as beautiful. It was perplexing and I wanted to reject it because I had begun to enjoy the seduction of inadequacy. But a flower couldn’t help but bloom inside of me.”
Nyong’o is an inspiration to women of all shades and hues. She is proof that anyone can overcome the struggle of not being comfortable in their own skin. Bottom line, black is beautiful and we’re all celebrating with her as she continues to take on this journey called life.
Congrats on your very well deserved Oscar, beautiful!
