VALUE YOUR SHADE

A lot of dark girls struggle with accepting their natural shade because light skin is often considered more pretty. Young dark girls that have these struggles may be tempted to bleach their skin color when they are older. I don’t advise that because apart from the health risks, nothing beats loving yourself. You have to love everything about yourself and see your dark skin as a blessing.

See what Kelly Rowland had to say about struggling with being dark skin when she was younger.

''I remember I went through a period where I didn't embrace my 'chocolatiness.' I don't know if that's a word, but I didn't embrace my chocolate lifestyle. Just being a chocolate, lovely brown-skin girl and being proud of that''.

I remember Tina Knowles, Bey mom and I, I remember being out in the sun and I was trying to shield myself from the sun and she said, 'Are you crazy?' She said ' You are absolutely gorgeous,' and she just told me how beautiful I was and how rare chocolate is and how gorgeous the skin is, all of this stuff. And I was just like 'Yeah!' Like a light went off. So between her and my mother and then me sitting out in the sun a little more, just to be a little more chocolate. You just embrace it. You embrace everything that you are as a woman, even your flaws too. ''