I should buy this cream
To be the girl I dream.
‘Cause if l have brown skin
There’s no way for me to win.
That’s what my aunt tells me
Fairness is beauty, beauty is key
But does she not see that beauty thrives
In Forest land soil abundant with lives.
Dazzle of copper with dusk of mahogany
Nutmeg, cinnamon and burnt honey;
Rich caramel, chocolate and cappuccino:
Look alluringly artistic, doesn’t she know?
The colour of Autumn and an old book’s spine,
Seeps through to shade this brown skin of mine.
Fair skin is finer : a fallacy.
The beauty of brown, they just fail to see.

-Hira // comfortable in my own skin.


I know this is an age of acceptance of all kinds of beauty. There are a lot of brown skinned people who get to embrace their complexion, but there is still a large fraction of women and men who are made to feel inferior about it. I’ve seen it happen many times and the very least I can do is write against it in the hope that a brown person may read it and feel proud.