City Lights
IG @mp.y.ana
Photographer @iamkenyatay
In a world where the melanin in my skin will not result to the luring stares, and the cutting words that scar deeper than any wound.
Where I can raise my little girl or boy to love all of themselves, and not like me, to only just recently feel comfortable and loving of the body I once felt cursed to lug around, like this heavy weight that softly draped me with fear, low confidence and the embedded thought that I wasn’t good enough.
Slowly and surely I brought that love for me, but in a society it lacked.
Submerging my culture and identity into this embodiment of ugliness, because then that would mean right until the moment I glowed to you, I was just an ugly black girl.
Derived from a time where anything closest to white was always preferred, but how long ago really was that time?
Cultural roots so far from their rich soil that we forget who we really are.
Strength in the melanin that runs through our veins
Resilience through our ancestry
My skin is my gift to this world and today they will see it shine.
What does decolonization mean to me?
Decolonization means being able to express black beauty in every light of the media, I believe that representation is so crucial in the leap to the world we want to build where beauty standards are not restricted to a race or a type of appearance. Since I was a child I've dreamt of the day I could change my afro-centric features, I hated the nose I often called "big" and too "round". I grew up only seeing for the most part white females in film, television & print, and if they were Black, they had more euro-centric features. The lack of representation in my life among other social factors, fostered this abundance of hate in myself, growing up I knew I've always wanted to be a model and this hate continued to persuade me that I wasn't good enough. I stand today not wanting to change anything but the world and I want to inspire, the youth and most importantly the young Black girls who might've felt what I felt at some point in their life or who may still feel it now. Today I manifest and continue to pursue a career in the modeling and fashion industry and I know I will achieve what I am set to become! What decolonization means to me, is an unapologetic look at Black Beauty from all angles of the beautiful range our collective culture has to offer.