10 Stunning Women Shut Down the Stereotype That Light Skin Is Better Than Dark Skin
I grew up as a black girl in a predominately white environment. People always told me, "Maya, you're pretty for a dark-skinned girl."
Why was my hair longer than the one other black girl's hair? they would ask, and I got used to the intrusive questions about my race. But I never really knew how to take the backhanded compliments about my chocolate skin, my wide nose, and full lips. Though I never thought about altering my natural skin tone, I felt that my dark skin wasn't desirable.
I'm not alone in my experience. Many black women hate the color of their skin because it isn't light enough, or dislike the texture of their hair because it isn't long enough. Colorism affects the black community even more than people on the outside even understand, and efforts to stop perpetuating this arbitrary value judgment continue to this day. It's why everyone was so livid about Zoe Saldana having to darken her skin tone and use a prosthetic nose to portray Nina Simone. And it's why Kerry Washington's 2015 InStyle cover caused a nationwide debate over the authentic brownness of her skin. In some countries, colorism drives people to use bleaching creams to lighten their skin, which can ultimately lead to cancer.
The Colored Girl Project is a campaign on a mission to change the damaging belief that light is better than dark, or that African-American skin only comes in one shade. The photo series features 10 women who beautifully represent 10 different brown skin tones.
Photographed by Joey Rosado, these stunning shots showcase and celebrate the beauty of all black women in the many shades, shapes, and features with which we've been gifted. Cosmopolitan.com spoke with project founder Tori Elizabeth and co-founder Victory Jones about all that went into creating this powerful project.
"We wanted to do something that was very classy and elegant to display the beauty of black women," said Elizabeth. "The reason why we call it 'The Colored Girl Project' is because we wanted to take a term that was derogatory and negative, and turn it into something beautiful."
Have you had personal experiences dealing with colorism that pushed you to pursue this project?
Tori: I grew up in the South. As many know, there's a ton of segregation there. I saw a lot of segregation between the light-skinned versus dark-skinned community. My mother was very fair-skinned and my brother was very dark-skinned. Growing up, my family on my father's side would treat me way better than they would treat my brother just because of our skin tone difference. My father had a tendency to date lighter-skinned women who had "good hair." As a kid, I began to look at dark skin as more beautiful because I didn't understand why someone would treat others so differently because of it. I wondered, Why? These experiences made me want people to wake up, be aware, and change this.
Victory: I've definitely experienced colorism. I come from a racially mixed background. My family is completely Jamaican on both sides. I'm actually black and Indian. People will see my cousins and I together, and we'll get strange looks once we introduce ourselves as family just because of our various shades of brown skin tones. Sometimes people joke about someone being too dark or for being in the sun for too long. We hold on to that type of stuff as kids and you don't realize it until we get older. It doesn't just happen with the African-American communities because a large portion of my family is Indian. It happens with any shade of brown skin. In the West Indian culture, colorism is very prevalent. The lighter-skinned, long-, curly-haired women are held to different standards of beauty than the darker-skinned, bigger-nosed women. All beauty should be celebrated.
What was the process like choosing the 10 women to feature in the campaign?
Tori: We wanted to highlight certain features that the media and sometimes even our own communities criticize in a negative way. We chose a girl with larger eyes, a bigger nose, and other features that are oftentimes looked at as negative. We wanted to celebrate them to show that they are beautiful. We've noticed that women in other cultures will go out and purchase bigger lips, curves, and other features that black women are naturally born with because it's accepted and celebrated in their culture. We also wanted it to be accepted and celebrated within our own communities.
Victory: We went through weeks of searching and individually scouting all of the women we admire. We curated this in a very selective, hand-picked fashion to get it down to the girls we wanted. Our makeup artist, Yada Lamb, and our jewelry designer, Malyia McNaughton, for the shoot ended up being two additional models because they're stunning.
We've been talking about colorism and having this whole light- versus dark-skinned debate for years. These images negate that. Why did you choose visual over verbal advocacy?
Victory: Visuals are the strongest way you can express so many things at once without a single word. We wanted to create one single image that was full of so much grace, beauty, power authenticity, ethnicity, and vibrancy. It resonates with so many people for different reasons all from just one glance. We always thought this was going to be the perfect medium to showcase this campaign.
Do you think it's possible to have a color-blind society?
Victory: No. Ideally, I would love that. I don't think we should stop seeing the colors; I think we should stop putting labels on them. We need to stop attaching negative emotions and negative thoughts to different skin tones. We should celebrate color. The same way we look at bunch of women lined up with different skin tones is the same way we should look at a rainbow. You see all the colors and appreciate each one for what it is. But you don't dislike red because it's not blue. That's crazy.
Even though the shots in your photo series show how physically stunning each woman is on the outside, I feel so much of their inner beauty radiating. How did you make sure you captured that?
Tori: When it was time to shoot, we would give little direction, and the way the women leaned on each other was so natural. We're all like sisters now. It's not something that we could make up. It just kinda happened. I can definitely say that when each woman walked into the room, every time, they looked at another girl they would say, "Wow, you're beautiful." It was compliments from the moment everyone walked in.
Victory: It was the vibe and energy that each girl authentically carried within her that magnified in the photos. The synergy was definitely there. We had blueprints of the kinds of things we wanted to do visually, but it flowed so naturally. The love and respect each woman had for herself carried over into how she treated each woman at the shoot. We laughed, hugged, and held hands. Nothing was forced. Queens recognize queens no matter what. Everyone in the room felt the energy. It was very, very powerful. Everyone was woman-crushing on everyone. It was almost like if Instagram came to life and there was a "like" button in person.
Society pushes so many beauty standards on black women in terms of colorism. What are some ways that we can combat that?
Tori: The more that we celebrate black women in the media, the more it will become the norm. If it starts there, it will begin to trickle down into schools and families. Girls will have role models to look up to and see a dark-skinned woman on TV as opposed to only fair-skinned women. For a long time, darker-skinned women felt like they never had a representative in the media. I've actually seen a shift in media. Previously, it was more of European standards that were defined as beautiful. Now I'm starting to see more curves and fuller lips. Most of it is surgically done, but the media has embraced more of the natural features black women are born with.
What do each of you love most about black women?
Tori: I love our versatility. I love the fact that if I want to wear an afro, braids, or long extensions, I can. I can be lighter-skinned in the winter and in the summertime have a bronze-y glow. Black women are chameleons. There's this confidence and presence that we naturally have.
Victory: I'm obsessed with our creativity. I love that we can make gold out of nothing because strength and resilience is just innately in us.
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