I'm 20 yrs. Lightskinned black woman an dI can only speak from my own experiences, but I've found it very hard to be my complexion. I am very light with black features, and yet i catch crap from all sides. I am mixed but raised more in the black community. IT always seeme dlike I was too "white" to fit in with my black peers and my fetures were to "black" to fit in with my white peers. I always wished I had darker skin, but I've always stood out. It's never been easy for me because people will pull all race cards on me and i'd hate that. I'd even be called albino as a joke oftn jus cuz id be the lightest one in the group. IT gets to you after awhile if you dont have the confidence or self esteem for it

Hey tyra, my name is meghna and Im from India(Asia).As you might have heard , Indians are very particular about their skin tone. Here lighter skin tones are preferred to be more beautiful. Im a pure Asian Indian with an olive skin tone, and i personally feel lighter skinned womer have it easier.Till now I have faced enough racism because of my medium or olive skin tone. Sometimes I do wish i was a lighter skinned woman, even though im olive skinned. I have gone under severe depression too and have visited the counseller because of this issue. I hope to get some help.

hi im a dark skinded 15 year old girl who struggle of gettin rapped of my preeteeen years ever since then iv been using condoms to prtect me of getting pregnent at an early age and i want to tell people my age my story i been through iv wanted to share my horrible story of how guys would rape me and throw me to the side and i learned it was cool not to tell any one now its my chance to tell my story of how i went on the inernent and escaped from a guy who had turned me in a sex slave and how he put a gun to my face and force me to have sex with this 73 year old man and had to give him money and how i escaped from getting killed from that pimp.

I am a light skinned mexican with dark brown hair and brown eyes, but my 2 sisters are darker and I always wanted to be darker I felt like I did not fit in because the light skinned mexicans usually had lighter hair and eyes and the darker ones had dark hair and dark eyes, I am now finally starting to like myself with my light skin and dark hair and eyes, people sometimes think I'm half white, but I am full mexican I have 2 boys who also have light skin and dark hair and eyes . my grandmother did not like dark skinned mexicans, so there is also a lot of prejudice among mexicans regarding your skincolor

Hi,Tyra
I was just looking for make-up solutions for dark complexed women and I came to this site about skin complexions. I'm very dark complexed. VERY. I'm a beautiful dark skinned young lady. I've been talked about about my skin color from as far back in my past as I can think. sometimes I still get scared to go places because I'm afarid of what people may say about me. I'm twenty-three and I'm just now getting comfortable with my skin color. I don't care what the world may think about dark skinned women. It's a shame that I can't go to the store and find some foundation in my color. The world wants us to believe that skinny, light-skinned women with long hair are the pretty women in the world. I want the world to want that dark skinned women are very beautiful and strong. What hurts the most is that black people are the individuals who made fun of me the most. When I was younger I would often question God. Why would he make me this color that everyone dislikes. I don't question his work now. Dark women are taking over now. Finally men and the world are getting it!! I can actually get a date now. I asked many of my male friends when I was younger would they date dark skinned girls and they would reply by saying dark skinned girls are cool but they would prefer to date light skinned girls. Thats all changed now. I love the skin I'm in. TOO ALL THE DARK SKINNED WOMEN OUT THERE, YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL!!!

hi this is my first time ever here. i was actually googling for how to take care of curly hair lol and i got to your website. i went through the topics and i found this soo interesting because i can relate to it. i'm originally from yemen, it's on the red sea in the middle east so i'm arab and i have a brownish olivy skin tone, and let me tell you i think our skin tone (darker skin tones in general) are the best ever. look at all the white "skinned" people trying to get tanned and going to tanning salons to have our colours and complexion. i never thought white skin toned people have it easy at all i think they have it hard actually. it's just here though the funny part, to be honest, back home they will die for a white skin tone. if a girl has a white skin tone she is the princess! and the prettiest girl in the world even if she has no features or complextion she has a white skin tone that's it she doesn't need any of that lol when women look for a wife for thier sons the first thing in their list is the girl has to have a white skin. i live in canada now but i remember everytime i go there to visit family all my aunts will gang up on me and put these wierd mixtures and products to make me look white. girls from our side of the world put white foundations on no matter what their colour is. so most of them in weddings or parties look GRAY! a brown person putting white foundation on oh god! girls use a product called fair and lovely which makes your skinn lighter everynight and mornning before they sleep and when they go out to work or school. they use this product in india and the middle east coz the same thing goes in india as well. click on this link and look at the picture advertizing for it or you can google it if you want: http://feministing.com/imageStorage/fair&lovely.JPG .

I have soo many stories about that i just find it really funny. i go back home they want me to be white skinned and i come here and i get people using me as a sample to get my skin tone wether i'm passing by a tanning salone or if they want to buy a bronz shimmer or any product that will add some darker tone to thier white skin. i used to work at walmart and i had alot of ladies asking me if there is any bronzer or a self tanning product that would give them my colour! =S speaking of make up products i've always found stuff for my tone now adays there is alot of products for many different skin tone people need to try or go see a makeup specialist their advices really help and one thing for sure you can do is trying different things i'm always trying different things and that's how you find what suits you the best.

Hey Tara:

Whatever it is, all my life I have complexation problem. I am South Asian born in between not so tanned and not so fair. My skin varies according to the lights an sun! It is very hard for me to get foundation and to get the right colours for nything. To op it all, I suffer from skin problems and it is VERY HARD for me to hide under the right foundation as I cannot find the right colour foundation. I had grown up to feel FLAWED. I know we can easily mixed make up colours but i gave up as I always ended buying wrong make up lipsticks, foundations & eyesahdows. What I tested upon buying will look diferent at home under normal light??!! Sharing my long ago frustration. Honestly, beauty deep inside is people who do not need foundation/make up to walk out but at times we need some helps to hide certains flaws...mmmm

Hi I would like to comment based on my own personalxperience. skin color has always been a problem when i was younger. the whole class would be against me and pick on me because i was dark skin and had nappy hair . sometimes i would be the only one by myself sitting alone on 1 side of the room and all the other kids tried to move away from me as possiable. boys and girls made fun of me. i hated myself. i wanted to be like the " pretty" girls in the class. i was made fun of so much at a point even my white teachers had to laugh at some of the jokes made. i mean every thing from " tar baby" " monkey". i mean this started from 3rd grade up untill about junior high. now im about to turn 20. i have learned to work with what i have. i have curves. not out of shape. staight teeth. great personality. and femine feautures. i do get " your cute for a dark skin girl" all the time. i do feel now that i am attractive. but i still to this day feel a little intimadated by light skin women because they are lets call it what it is favored. they automaticlly are thought to be prettier.Even in the rap vidoes. there are hardly any women potrayed beautiful when they are darker then lets say a brown tone. although we have kenya moore, lauren hill, gabreille union, nia long,niomi campell, kelly rowland, the list goes on But the light skin sistahs are always in the lime light. Beyonce,Ashanti,Mariah,Rihanna,Keisha Cole,christina millian. and its like enough all ready. we all ready know these women are drop dead geourges. but their is more then one shade of black when are you going to admire the other side. its funny that the list of black women i listed earlier. alot of people dont even know who...kenya moore or kelly rowland is. but they know beyonce.. which as to say kelly was in the same group. its just so hard trying to set a good example and full of shhh when people say"black is beautiful" when the media dosent oppse to beautiful black PURE WOMEN. and only talk about the half black or light sisters it just dosent make sence.it's an issue that i think will always stay the same. weve been fighting it for about 400 years now and its not going to change. its harder for darker skin females then darker skin males beacause. i guess the world or america looks at dark as a masculine thing and light as the most feminine thing.

I think that for years whites have been in charge of movies,cermercials,and the modeling industry which has given them the control to define beauty.putting themselves as the image of beauty.As the whole world watched and perceived their perception as true leaving other races to fall into the sterio-types they have created. hiring white beautiful woman and fat black woman with attitudes to star in movies when all over the usa their is beautiful and overweight woman in all races but because the whites have the upper hand in intertainment they control the sterio-types that influences our country even our world. Making our young black men intertainers put white woman in their videos and movies as most desireable to our black men when reality reveals they are dating or married to black woman. never ever putting our black men with their white woman entertainers.Yes i do beleive that whites had it easier only because their in control of the biggest influence tool(T.V)and for that reason and that reason only .But because of beautiful,smart and successful black woman like yourself tyra that are redefining the image of beauty and sterio-types of black woman we are gaining back our honorable image. Thank you tyra.

I think that for years whites have been in charge of movies,cermercials,and the modeling industry which has given them the control to define beauty.putting themselves as the image of beauty.As the whole world watched and perceived their perception as true leaving other races to fall into the sterio-types they have created. hiring white beautiful woman and fat black woman with attitudes to star in movies when all over the usa their is beautiful and overweight woman in all races but because the whites have the upper hand in intertainment they control the sterio-types that influences our country even our world. Making our young black men intertainers put white woman in their videos and movies as most desireable to our black men when reality reveals they are dating or married to black woman. never ever putting our black men with their white woman entertainers.Yes i do beleive that whites had it easier only because their in control of the biggest influenc tool(T.V)and for that reason and that reason only .But because of beautiful,smart and successful black woman like yourself tyra that are redefining the image of beauty and sterio-types of black woman we are gaining back our honorable image. Thank you tyra.

Hi Tyra, I'm an EXOTIC, SMART, BLACK sixteen year old. Everyday people joke about my skin color, from joking and calling me Wesley Snipes to saying that they can only see my teeth in pictures. I live in a predominately white community and the ideal face of beauty is white. I once struggled with that concept and tried to fit into that by mimicing what was "ideal". Then I got criticized for that and that blew me into a state of confusion. Once I started 8th grade I started to embrace my dark skin because I'm exotic. I realized I DIDN'T look like anybody else. That made me stand out and I use that to my advantage. Everybody knows me at school and they say I look like an african princess. I may not fit the ideal standard of beauty that our society emphasizes on but I know that I'm beautiful and others around know that too whether they like it or not.

Hi Tyra, I was watchin your show on skin color. I am a mother of two teenage girls and one is bi-racial. my oldest daughter is also light skinned. but of cource my baby girl is lighter w colored eyes, and freckles and sandy long hair. they fight alot and call her names like white-girl, snow bunny ect. im wondering if its all just siblings rivary or what? I just feel like maybe i didnt think of the concequence. in the long run. Her self esteem is really low. i try to tell her in life she gonna be talked about. but when her own siblings treat her like that how is she suppose bounce back? so im askin for your advice on how to deal with this issue. thanks

Hey Tyra,
I am a 21 year old GORGEOUS dark skinned woman who struggled with low self-esteem since i was in middle school. As a child grouwing up in Georgia, I was always teased about my features and overlooked many times because i was dark skinned. In the past my light skinned friend would always get attention from boys and always had other friends. I felt so inferior to her because she was mixed and everybody around me put her up on a pedistol. I used to wonder why guys wouldn't ask me out and why the females at CHURCH, yes at CHURCH, wouldn't want to hang with me but would always hang with her. I hated it for a long time. My self esteem was broken for a long time because of what happened to me in my childhood. But then as I got older, I begin to love my self day by day. I began to look at everything about me that was posistive day by day and focus only on the positive aspect of me. I would pray and see myself as a beautiful woman that God has made me to be. I no longer care about the girls that did not want to hang with me but began to feel good about being by myself and enjoying me which was hard for me to do in the begining of my life. After I started to love being around me then I began to get a friend who like me for me. I no longer cared about what the media says about beauty! Outer appearance does play a part in society, but the real appearance is what is on the inside. I learned to be free and thank God for how he made me. So after doing all of this, then I started to get alot of guys attention. I started to get approached more and asked out. I was so overwhelmed that it took me by surprise. I sorta feel like a late bloomer, but thats ok, because everything is in God's timeing and I learned to accept that!!! I am now loving myself and living free, and I know that there is somebody out there for me. So to all of my sistas out there that feel like you're not good enough, just look deep inside yourself and know that you are wonderfully and fearfully made!! You are beautiful!!! No MATTER WHAT PEOPLE SAY!!!

Hi Tyra,
I watched your show and it educated me regarding the prejudice among the light and dark skinned blacks. I am a mother of two beautiful black children. Surprisingly yesterday I got a call from one of my kid’s teacher telling me that two kids(Mexican) were making fun of my daughter’s skin saying it was too dark, and made fun of her hair too. Tyra, my child is only five years old in Kindergarten!
I felt sick to my stomach when I heard this. I didn’t know what to do, or what to particularly tell my little girl. I have raised both my kids to respect people and not to say things that might hurt others. When my little girl told me that kids said she had bad skin, that it was too dark I just felt like crying I didn’t know what words to tell her apart from assuring her that there was nothing wrong with her skin tone or hair. I would love to get some advice on how to best handle the situation. And what I should do so this doesn’t affect my baby.
Thanks for the good work.
Kindest Regards,
Ruth

Hi Tyra,
I am a 26yr old dark skinned BEAUTIFUL BLACK WOMAN both inside and out. People often say that I look like Lauren Hill and Malinda Williams from Soul Food. Growing up I was teased for my dark skin. I would be lying if I said that it did not hurt me, but as kids we are all teased for something. The kids that teased me had very light skin and I'm sure they were were just repeating things that they heard at home. I think the problem with light skin vs dark skin starts at home with the parents and the parents learned it from the older generation. Of course it all started with slavery when black people were divided based on the lightness or darkness of their skin. This problem is never going to change until we start teaching our children that we are black and all equally beautiful no matter the shade of our skin. As a teenager, I noticed that some boys looked at the girls first with lighter skin and some looked at girls with darker skin. I realized that everyone has their preference and that's just reality. Everyone is not going to be attracted to you. Also, growing up I noticed that many times beauty had nothing to do with the guys liking you. Many of the girls that got attention from boys were the girls that had lots of confidence and were outspoken. If you are walking around with your head down with low self esteem, people are going to pick up on that. It will begin to make them feel uncomfortable around you and that's not attractive. I honestly don't feel like I get overlooked. I get attention from men of all races. I'm so serious. I'm FINE, SEXY, and SMART! I have beautiful features. I dress to kill and keep my hair done. My skin is beautiful and so is my personality. My hair is not naturally curly or straight and my eyes aren't light, they're dark brown and almond shaped! I wouldn't change it for the world. You have to love yourself first and know that you are beautiful before anyone else will believe it.

I'm a very fair-skinned Latina with dark hair and hazel eyes. It's sad because often times I am mistaken for white, and I hear the racist comments made against the Latino community.
But what's worst is that my own people don't consider me Latina because I'm not fluent in Spanish.

Please excuse spelling mistakes in my posting below, My keyboard is real bad!

Shayla I am really sorry to read what you have been going through, it sickens me that people think they can say what they like to others in that way! School can be a crule horrible place, where senseless things are just spouted out be un-thinking youngsters, as you gat older you will realise that way can move on and away from those people and be amongst those who are more like ourselves, but for now you have to try and dismiss such statements and love your self for who you are. If it is any consolation, I went to a school runion some years back and found that the group of girls who thought they were cool and bitchy had hardly moved on in life and were looking and sounding like Grand-Mothers before their time (No dis-respect to Grand-Mothers lol) whereas one or two who they had picked on had bloomed into Womerful Women and completely blanked them which I thought was so cool!

I'm amazed that in our Modern Multi-Cultural Society, having learned and progressed so much in decades past, that now in the past few years we are hearing these things amongst our youngsters, it's not just the USA, I notice it here in the UK also. I think maybe the recent and current music and fashionable image influences are encouraging young people to be less respectful of cultures and almost restricting themselves to their own groups of look-alikes and think-alikes, which is all very well whilst that culture is in fashion but not very progressive for society!

I am a White Guy, I have dated Black Skinned young ladies in my past of Jamaican,Ghanaian and Nigerian origins/heritage and i can assure you that to many Dark Skin Tone is not an issue and for many it is seen as attractive, so I hope that helps a little. The guy that said that to you is obviously a 'PIG' himself and probably says such things to others also, like saying someone has a Big Nose or suchlike, just remember that ok!

Wow I talk loads, I wanted to say that Katrina talks complete sense and put a wonderful posting below, I hope you read it Shayla!

Best Wishes to you and be cool about the real you and like-minded your friends!

Also...the angry, insecure woman on the show who didnt like [other] dark skin women needs to take a good look at the mirror, mirror, on the wall because she is not a light skin girl. I was so glad to see the dark skin lady stepping up to the microphone b/c I thought she was so much prettier than the woman who was spouting self hatred. I was curious as to what she would say to the prettier, darker woman, but I didn't get much of her stumbling, stuttering, rebuttal. Yeah...like I thought.

The last posting is the saddest thing I have read in a long time and it makes me wonder how many other people have felt that way. I'm a brownskinnish girl. I remember when I was modeling it was either "Make sure you stay out of the sun," or "Hmmm...I was hoping for a darker, more ethnic girl, but I think you could work." It was like either way I wasn't good enough or living up to someone elses expectations and I guess b/c of my life experiences I made it into a joke. I'd decided a long time ago that I would live up to my own personal code. On looks, on clothes, on make up, on morals, on anything. I go to bed alone and I sleep well. How is anyone going to tell me how I should look? I mean, seriously...
I really think that the girl below me's pain is caused by her environment. I hate that it's black men who are doing this to her. Especially b/c there are probably a flock of white men who would love her dark skin and her african american hair. Sometimes I think we get less love from our own men. It's not right. I hope she can go to another school.
Latin women have issues, too and so do white women. A Colombian girl around here was told not to get any darker by her sorority. The lighter girls are favored and the darker, curlier haired girls are not. White women have issues too. The fairer skin girls are made fun of in a very similar way as the girl whose post is below mine. I know. It's brutal. Ask almost any girl with red hair. Asian women have issues too. Most skin lightening creams are sold for African and Asian americans--some contain heavy metal which is why the FDA had to get involved in the sales of those creams. Everyone has "something" but really it doesn't matter. Everyones aware of it, but we still play by "the rules." If it's wrong, then why are we still doing it. Evil triumphs when good men do nothing.

Hey, tyra...ummm..i'm a 16 year old darkskinned girl and i DO believe that lightskinned girls have it easier than darkskinned girls, not in jobs, but in relationships. I do feel like i'm uglier than lightskined girls because i'm darkskinned. Ive had boyfriends who would dump me and try to get with my lightskinned girlfriends and because of that i stopped talking to them. I kind of....."hate" my darkskin. I always get teases by other guys. not girls. guys. and that hurts the most. i'd rather get teased by girls, and say there haters than to get teased by guys cuz they can't hate on me because they're boys. I've never felt this way before i entered highschool and started liking guys. In middle school i didnt care about boys and a lot of guys had liked me but i didnt go with them cuz i wasnt interested and NO ONE teased me about being darkskinned. It seems in the 9th grade and in my 4th block class where all the BLACK boys (3 black boys) teased me EVERY SINGLE DAY about being dark and they teased ONLY me. i cried almost everyday cuz of them. I remember when we had a substitute teacher and we were taking a test, we had to mark down our race on the test. One of the black boys raised their hands and said, Mr. So~So, how can shayla mark down a race...CHARCOAL isn't on the TEST! it was funny, but EVERYONE started laughing at me including my teacher. EVERYBODY laughed except me. they laughed at me for 10 mins. i skipped school for the next 3 days cuz of that. Another time i was in front of my classroom and these were this group of black guys in the corner and one of the darkskinned guys said and i quote "I'd date an ugly lightskinned girl over a cute BLACK girl anyday". i will never forget that. that made me so mad and made me hate myself SOO much. I cant stand my skin color. and i hope when i get older i'll learn to love it like these other females have learned to love it. but right now, i'm at my lowest. I try SOO hard to love myself and i try to dress nice and keep my hair done and that does work and i do track guy's attention. but its still not enough. i still feel inferior towards my lighter skinned friends. I dont care about that "girl, its only self-hate. the media did it. love the skin your in LINES". THE FACT IS: LIGHTSKIN IS PRETTY, AND DARK SKIN IS CONSIDERED UGLY!. i hate that fact, but its true. i hate my skin tone. I love me but i hate my skin tone. i kno i'm frowning in God's face but its SO hard to love my skin, when others dont. I WANT TO BE LIGHTSKINNED AND TRYING TO TALK MY MOM INTO BLEACHING MY SKIN! I WANT TO BE PRETTY! PRETTY AND LIGHT! I WANT TO BE ABLE TO GO TO A PARTY AND BE SEEN AND NOTICED (dont think i'm that dark, but i am dark). i want to wear bright eyeshadows and still look good. I dont care about long hair, i got weave. i just want guys to take one look at me and say "she's pretty". i dont want them to have to get a closer look and to stare at me for a long time to realize that i am pretty. i hate my darkskin!!! IT'S SO UGLY!! Y COULDNT I BE LIGHT LIKE MY COUSINS. I DONT EVEN HAVE TO BE LIGHTSKINNED...I'LL BE THANKFUL IF I WAS BROWNSKINNED!! EVEN MY WHITE GIRLFRIEND GETS CUTER GUYS THAN ME!!! I'M JUST SICK OF BEING DARKSKINNED. WHY DO I HAVE TO BE DARK?? WHY DO I HAVE TO BE THE UGLY COLOR?? WHY COULDNT I BE LIGHT AND HAVE A PRETTY COLOR!! I HATE MY DARKSKIN!! I WANT TO BE CONSIDERED PRETTY WITH LIGHTSKIN. I HATE MY DARKSKIN AND THATS MAKING ME HATE MYSELF..sorry tyra, i kinda rambled. but i do feel better

Hey, tyra...ummm..i'm a 16 year old darkskinned girl and i DO believe that lightskinned girls have it easier than darkskinned girls, not in jobs, but in relationships. I do feel like i'm uglier than lightskined girls because i'm darkskinned. Ive had boyfriends who would dump me and try to get with my lightskinned girlfriends and because of that i stopped talking to them. I kind of....."hate" my darkskin. I always get teases by other guys. not girls. guys. and that hurts the most. i'd rather get teased by girls, and say there haters than to get teased by guys cuz they can't hate on me because they're boys. I've never felt this way before i entered highschool and started liking guys. In middle school i didnt care about boys and a lot of guys had liked me but i didnt go with them cuz i wasnt interested and NO ONE teased me about being darkskinned. It seems in the 9th grade and in my 4th block class where all the BLACK boys (3 black boys) teased me EVERY SINGLE DAY about being dark and they teased ONLY me. i cried almost everyday cuz of them. I remember when we had a substitute teacher and we were taking a test, we had to mark down our race on the test. One of the black boys raised their hands and said, Mr. So~So, how can shayla mark down a race...CHARCOAL isn't on the TEST! it was funny, but EVERYONE started laughing at me including my teacher. EVERYBODY laughed except me. they laughed at me for 10 mins. i skipped school for the next 3 days cuz of that. Another time i was in front of my classroom and these were this group of black guys in the corner and one of the darkskinned guys said and i quote "I'd date an ugly lightskinned girl over a cute BLACK girl anyday". i will never forget that. that made me so mad and made me hate myself SOO much. I cant stand my skin color. and i hope when i get older i'll learn to love it like these other females have learned to love it. but right now, i'm at my lowest. I try SOO hard to love myself and i try to dress nice and keep my hair done and that does work and i do track guy's attention. but its still not enough. i still feel inferior towards my lighter skinned friends. I dont care about that "girl, its only self-hate. the media did it. love the skin your in LINES". THE FACT IS: LIGHTSKIN IS PRETTY, AND DARK SKIN IS CONSIDERED UGLY!. i hate that fact, but its true. i hate my skin tone. I love me but i hate my skin tone. i kno i'm frowning in God's face but its SO hard to love my skin, when others dont. I WANT TO BE LIGHTSKINNED AND TRYING TO TALK MY MOM INTO BLEACHING MY SKIN! I WANT TO BE PRETTY! PRETTY AND LIGHT! I WANT TO BE ABLE TO GO TO A PARTY AND BE SEEN AND NOTICED (dont think i'm that dark, but i am dark). i want to wear bright eyeshadows and still look good. I dont care about long hair, i got weave. i just want guys to take one look at me and say "she's pretty". i dont want them to have to get a closer look and to stare at me for a long time to realize that i am pretty. i hate my darkskin!!! IT'S SO UGLY!! Y COULDNT I BE LIGHT LIKE MY COUSINS. I DONT EVEN HAVE TO BE LIGHTSKINNED...I'LL BE THANKFUL IF I WAS BROWNSKINNED!! EVEN MY WHITE GIRLFRIEND GETS CUTER GUYS THAN ME!!! I'M JUST SICK OF BEING DARKSKINNED. WHY DO I HAVE TO BE DARK?? WHY DO I HAVE TO BE THE UGLY COLOR?? WHY COULDNT I BE LIGHT AND HAVE A PRETTY COLOR!! I HATE MY DARKSKIN!! I WANT TO BE CONSIDERED PRETTY WITH LIGHTSKIN. I HATE MY DARKSKIN AND THATS MAKING ME HATE MYSELF..sorry tyra, i kinda rambled. but i do feel better

I love trya banks even though shes light skineed. I wouldnt call me a red bone even though some boys do im a brown toned girl and i love my skin ,but however it is true i believe that lighter toned african americans with loser curled hair have it better than i would. my hair is natrually fro and i believe i would be considered as lowered class. There are no real darkskinned romodels for african american dark complected girls. Beyonce wouldnt even be cloe alica keys and rihanna .they all are light and if you enter the entertainment bussiness i believe you have to lighten your skin or so i believe, many african american famous artist i have seen them do that. There needs to be a romodel for us , if you watch the rapper videos they minimize the usage of dark tonned sistahs, the darkest the`y get to is brown but they dont go any further then that. Thas why i love treysongs he says he notices that and he trys to use darker tone sistas lol i love him and give him respect for that but if i eva became anyone famous i would make sure to have every tone and hair type in my magazines cause race isnt a issue to me but for other teenage girls they`ll start using bleaching creams and harm their bodys just to get that redbone look its amazing how people still discrimintae and its sad.hope full we all get better someday =)

Hi Tyra, I have been reading these comments and some do make me ask myself "What goes on in these women heads". I LOVE ME!!! I have a few things about me I would like to change but nothing major. Oh to let you know I am a DARK SKINNED WOMAN. I love it, although I do get the discrimination all the time when people approach me and say "YOU ARE VERY PRETTY TO BE DARK" or "ARE YOU FROM AN ISLAND, WHAT RACE ARE YOU?" I will sometimes ignore them or just play with their head and say im Ethiopian or something just to be silly. I am african american, and yes I am DARK SKINNED with CURLY HAIR, PRETTY TEETH, NATURALLY ARCHED EYEBROWS, and I am TALL. What is the BIG deal with your skin tone. If you are gorgeous[such as I :-)]u are gorgeous. You are as Beautiful as you feel. And EVERYONE should feel beautiful. I have this attitude and I am sort of conceited because I have been TEASED all my life and I still go through it and I am 21yrs old. I have a friend who is light skinned and she thinks she is the best thing smoking. When we are together people call us NIGHT & DAY, SALT & PEPPER, and VANILLA & CHOCOLATE. I turn every "BLACK JOKE" around on the "LIGHT SKINNED". I am BEAUTIFUL, GORGEOUS, EXOTIC, PRETTY, and DARK&LOVELY. I have no kids but when I do get married and have children I do want them to be what I have been all my life... CHOCOLATE. I LOVE ME***WHO doesnt love CHOCOLATE*** ~~~Its deeper than the SKIN its whats WITHIN~~~

Hello Tyra,
I am a 20 year old, pretty, dark skinned female,nicknamed COCO as a child, whom believes strongly that a light skinned woman has it easier. I say this because although i am pretty, guys tend to look at the lighter woman first because it's easier to see their features. Men don't seem attracted to me until they hear my voice and actually take the time to kno my PERSONALITY. As far as jobs, I think it's 50/50 unless you're in film or sometimes modeling. I HAD the dream of being a star but all i got was NO. I was told by a friend of the family that a dark skinned girl like myself would never make it in the film industry because people can't see me anyway. I asked then "why are dark skinned men the lead roles in movies," I was told that it was because they had sex appeal. As far as modeling goes, I went into a photographer's shoot and he didn't know that I was as dark as I am. He went over to the lady whom set me up with him and said, "the make-up I have will make her look like a ghost." That was prom night and my make-up was horrible. That man sent me out the door with that cake on my face and I had no time to wash it off. How humiliating is that? It's hard for a dark sknned woman to find the PERFECT MATCH of make-up. There's all shades except ours. EVENTUALLY I found mY SHADE. I can go on and on about how much a dark skinned woman like myself has been teased. I will say this, try having another girl in your 5th grade class compare you to a black window shade over the window and colored on w/ a white crayon in front of everyone. That's some hurtful things. The guy on the show said that he preferred a light skinned girl because of their long hair, I have the longest, prettiest hair in my family (no extentions), and can do the same thing a light skinned woman can. And to the light skinned woman, who beleives she's the HBIC, MA'AM I'M DARK WIT GOOD HAIR AND NO NAPS. GOD LOVES A DARK SKINNED WOMAN AS WELL AS LIGHT. YOU CAN KEEP ON WIT YOUR DISCRIMINATION, BUT AT THE END OF THE DAY YOU'RE NO BETTER THAN THE NEXT LIGHT, DARK, YELLOW, OR MIXED PERSON. She really pissed me off. But anyway Tyra. This is a very sensitive topic for me and I think if I keep typing I wil have carpal tunnel from typin so long and hard. Be Blessed ALL PEOPLE!!