When promoting 'Sulwe' on 'Good Morning America', the '12 Years a Slave' actress admits that growing up with a lot of light skin on TV and in the books made her feel unworthy.
- October 16, 2019
AceShowbiz - Oscar winner Lupita Nyong'o has written a new children's book loosely based on her own battle with dark skin.
The "12 Years a Slave" star grew up thinking light-skinned people were better, and now her book, "Sulwe", tackles the issue of acceptance among kids of colour.
"When I was younger, I had trouble accepting my skin," she tells "Good Morning America". "I grew up in Kenya around very many dark people, but I grew up with a lot of light skin on TV and in the books I read and it made me feel uncomfortable with my skin colour".
"I had a younger sister that was born a lot lighter than me and she got cooed... and told how pretty she was, and I realised that it was in the omission of those words when it came to me that made me feel unworthy and so it took a while for me to find my stride and learn to love the skin I'm in".
"So I wrote this book to help little kids get there a little faster".
She adds, "Some of my favourite books when I was growing up were 'Cinderella' and 'Thumbelina' and 'Beauty and the Beast'... and these were all women with light skin and blonde hair and so I thought that in order to make it into the pages of book, you have to be light.
"In fact, one of the first times I drew my family, I drew them with light skin... I wrote this to give dark-skinned kids a chance to live in a world of imagination and magic".
