"I got teased and taunted about my skin," Nyong'o said. My one prayer to God was that I would wake up lighter skinned. The morning would come and I would be so excited about seeing my new skin that I would refuse to look down at myself until I was in front of the mirror because I wanted to see my face first. Every day I would feel the disappointment of being just as dark as the day before."
However, things changed when she learned about supermodel Alex Wek, who is also dark-skinned. "She was dark as night and was in all the magazines and on runways," the Oscar nominee said. "My complexion had always been an obstacle to overcome. I couldn't believe that people were embracing a woman who looked so much like me as beautiful. It was perplexing and I wanted to reject it because I had begun to enjoy the seduction of inadequacy. But a flower couldn't help but bloom inside of me."
By telling her story, the "12 Years a Slave" star hoped to inspire women like her. "I hope that my presence on your screen and my face in magazines may lead you, young girls, on a beautiful journey," she said. "That you will feel the validation of your external beauty, but also get to the deeper business of being beautiful inside."
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