How do you feel on the first day of school?
Of all the feelings I could feel: excitement, happiness and anxious, I felt ugly, I felt not good enough.
I grew up reading Cosmogirl every month and I never looked like the girls in the magazine. My hair was thick and curly; I never saw pretty girls with thick curly hair. Kids at school would always ask me why my hair wasn’t straight, or why I didn't wear my hair hanging down like they did, because they didn't understand that my hair doesn't do that, and that it doesn't HAVE to do that in order for me to look good. It was rare that I saw a Black girl in the magazines growing up looking like me.
Black women all over relax their hair so it can look like the women they’ve seen all their lives in magazines and television. Black women all over use bleaching creams so they can look like those pretty White women. Rappers talk about how they want light skin women with long straight hair because this is all they’ve seen all their lives.
They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but when everything our eyes see is controlled by 7 to 10 companies and 99% of television networks are owned by White men, we have very few visions to behold.
Advertising should give our eyes more options on what beauty is.
There are over six billion people in the world! Advertising should represent them all! We should all see a little bit of ourselves in the ads. Hair, skin color, body type, ethnicity and style should not be White all over.
Four in ten women do not feel comfortable describing themselves as beautiful. Lets change that.
Besides, if you appeal to more people you make more money anyway. =)
HOLLY ROSE
