dark-skinned kenyan women are celebrated in this gorgeous photo series

Skin colour was never a factor in my childhood and I always felt every other child was unique in their own way.Personally, I had cute eyes and I appreciated compliments that came with it. Others had admirable types of hair, others beautiful nails, desirable accents and what have you. This didn’t make me feel any less of a beautiful girl.
On growing up I came to realise the outside world appreciated the light skinned girls so evident in the magazine adverts, cosmetic brand ambassadors, the models in town and even a few jobs that are specific to that particular skin tone. This made me feel like being dark was a bondage of shame. However, Melanin has come to be the in the thing that everyone is talking about..I realized my skin type is expensive and comes with so much value. An example is the South Sudan model who charges $15,000 for every hour of fashion photography showing just how scarce the black colour is. A confident woman who has a strong sense of self is quite beautiful.

I am proud to be a dark skinned Girl. A glorious masterpiece created by God himself.

My name is Akual Awer and I am a south Sudanese girl. I would consider myself a humanitarian. I believe in the existence of a story within a story. This concept focuses on the idea behind everything having a reason behind its behaviour and action. Not really as a form of justification but rather a point of understanding. I am a criminal justice major who is in love with art. My relationship with my skin has been a journey that is still in progress. As many dark skinned girls, I grew up with no love for this colour. I found it unfair that I had to go through the hate and name calling. In real sense I found it unfair how as humans we are able to find beauty in everything else but ourselves. However, I preach self love because I have seen its power. At this point in my life I wake up looking at the mirror and falling in love with whoever is looking back at me. Was it easy? No . Was it worth it? Yes. I believe that love is what the world needs. I believe that patients and forgiveness is what we need to practice.
All this I work towards, through my writing and soon enough my music.

My name is Linity Gitonga. I am environmental enthusiast whereby I work with young people between 5-25 in creating environmental awareness. These activities include re-afforestation, afforestation and waste management,and the main aim of pursuing this is to create an environment where the needs of the current generatuon are met without jeopardizing the needs of the future generations.
Well,my relationship with my skin tone has been quite smooth since family and friends around me kept on complimenting it which in turn contributed to the building up of my self-esteem. Although during my campus days there was a very Influencing wave among my peers whereby melanin rich girls weren’t considered pretty since in Kenya “rangi ya thao” (comparison to a thousand shillings) was like hitting the jackpot. Nevertheless this didn’t interfere with my esteem since I was aware my differences are what made me unique.
To all my melanin rich girls keep it mind,if you want to know it’s beautiful paint it black