I am a beauty disrupter I am a
self-esteem advocate but more than
anything I am a woman who’s fed up with
linear beauty standards I grew up right
here in Detroit where the ideal image
for black girls is light-skinned with
long hair well I’m brown skin
I was always curvier I had a gap in
between my teeth and I had a flat but
still do but I remember vividly
overhearing a guy describe me with the
attributes that I didn’t have
she’s not even light-skinned she had a
flat bud but at this time you couldn’t
tell me a thing I thought I was so cute
and that day taught me a valuable lesson
it taught me how to love myself wholly
and more importantly it taught me how to
never allow someone else’s opinion of me
to determine my value for the last six
years I’ve built a cosmetic company with
the idea to change the way we think
about beauty for ourselves and
ultimately how we extend that to those
who look differently from us when I
started making lipstick in my kitchen it
wasn’t because I was passionate about
makeup no it was because I was
frustrated that attractiveness was
consistently looked at through a
singular lens today if you search the
word beauty you’ll end up with the see a
fair-skinned thin young women as if good
looks don’t come in any other form and
so when we have those ideas in the back
of our mind we really start to think
that we’re up we
we look at the beautiful people and we
think man they have it all they’re rich
they’re in love they’re happy they’re
successful and I could have that too if
I just had if I just changed we start to
think that we’re not enough of something
that we’re lacking in some areas that
causes us to stifle opportunities for
ourselves because we feel as though we
don’t belong and B we don’t deserve and
even worse we extend that that low
confidence and that lack of confidence
in a low self-esteem we extend that on
to our sisters our friends our cousins
because if I’m not enough she’s
definitely not enough right for years
women were taught that our value was
directly linked with our looks our
ability to get marry our ability to have
children and even today now that women
are starting businesses taking office
taking over the world essentially we’re
still relegated to this idea that beauty
and our looks are most important we see
this in every industry from sarena
dominating on the tennis court to Hilary
running for president all the way down
to Louisiana where a little girl wasn’t
permitted to go to school because of her
braided hair style now braids have
always been a long-standing part of
African and African American beauty
culture and just because you don’t
practice it doesn’t mean that you can’t
accept or respected and I don’t know
about you but the last time I checked my
hair style didn’t prevent me from
learning the tutu that I wear on the
tennis court doesn’t prevent me from
winning a grand slam in the color suit
that I wear it certainly doesn’t make me
but what’s attractiveness anyway and
shouldn’t it be
shouldn’t it be subjective well yes and
no what’s attractive has become a
popularized understanding of our
cultural footprint what we as
individuals believe is attractive is
directly stemmed from our environment
that’s why men really just want to marry
women just like their mom
and as much as we want to hate them for
it they can’t help it that’s their first
perspective of what beauty and love is
like if I were to grow up in Ghana
I wasn’t grown up in the US and while
the world is becoming more
interconnected than ever we’re seeing
that the global standard of beauty is
quickly becoming the Western standard of
beauty so much so that in countries like
South Africa or China where the
population is largely people of color
white women are still at the forefront
of these commercial campaigns so it
doesn’t surprise me to hear that 70% of
women in Lagos Nigeria bleach their skin
even though skin bleaching has been
linked to cancer what that tells me is
that 10 billion dollar industry is being
upheld by this idea that beauty is
linear those women are just trying to
get ahead this idea leaves plus-sized
women filling invalid
mature women feeling as though they aged
out of their beauty beyond their
childbearing years and ethnic women
feeling unwanted and don’t get me wrong
while it impacts women the most it’s not
only us who suffer most male CEOs of
Fortune 500 companies are taller than
average because height is linked to
attractiveness and power this is a
multi-generational gender neutral issue
our children are growing up not valuing
themselves and certainly not being able
to extend that love and acceptance on to
their peers those children grow up with
low self-esteem and end up being
consumers of weight-loss pads of plastic
surgery have you guys notice the plastic
surgery trend surge around your butt and
thigh is up forty two hundred percent
since the year 2000 how crazy is that
and so it makes me think back to when I
was a little girl and I thought about me
not having the
but you know if I didn’t have that
confidence to keep going on I could be
one of these statistics so how do we how
do we transform how do we start loving
ourselves well first of all we have to
figure out what those triggers are that
make us feel less Sann is this scrolling
through social media you may need to
give it a break is it going shopping or
is it simply just going over grannies to
hear her tell you how much weight you’ve
gained since the last time she saw you
figure out what those items are and cut
them off I’m telling you if granny is
pulling you down granny has got to go
[Laughter]
you have to be prepared to go to bat for
your identity in this pop culture driven
society so I challenge each of you when
you go home today look at yourself in
the mirror see all of you look at all of
your greatness that you embody accept it
and love it and finally when you leave
the house tomorrow try to extend that
same love and acceptance to someone who
doesn’t look like you thank you [Applause]
self-esteem advocate but more than
anything I am a woman who’s fed up with
linear beauty standards I grew up right
here in Detroit where the ideal image
for black girls is light-skinned with
long hair well I’m brown skin
I was always curvier I had a gap in
between my teeth and I had a flat but
still do but I remember vividly
overhearing a guy describe me with the
attributes that I didn’t have
she’s not even light-skinned she had a
flat bud but at this time you couldn’t
tell me a thing I thought I was so cute
and that day taught me a valuable lesson
it taught me how to love myself wholly
and more importantly it taught me how to
never allow someone else’s opinion of me
to determine my value for the last six
years I’ve built a cosmetic company with
the idea to change the way we think
about beauty for ourselves and
ultimately how we extend that to those
who look differently from us when I
started making lipstick in my kitchen it
wasn’t because I was passionate about
makeup no it was because I was
frustrated that attractiveness was
consistently looked at through a
singular lens today if you search the
word beauty you’ll end up with the see a
fair-skinned thin young women as if good
looks don’t come in any other form and
so when we have those ideas in the back
of our mind we really start to think
that we’re up we
we look at the beautiful people and we
think man they have it all they’re rich
they’re in love they’re happy they’re
successful and I could have that too if
I just had if I just changed we start to
think that we’re not enough of something
that we’re lacking in some areas that
causes us to stifle opportunities for
ourselves because we feel as though we
don’t belong and B we don’t deserve and
even worse we extend that that low
confidence and that lack of confidence
in a low self-esteem we extend that on
to our sisters our friends our cousins
because if I’m not enough she’s
definitely not enough right for years
women were taught that our value was
directly linked with our looks our
ability to get marry our ability to have
children and even today now that women
are starting businesses taking office
taking over the world essentially we’re
still relegated to this idea that beauty
and our looks are most important we see
this in every industry from sarena
dominating on the tennis court to Hilary
running for president all the way down
to Louisiana where a little girl wasn’t
permitted to go to school because of her
braided hair style now braids have
always been a long-standing part of
African and African American beauty
culture and just because you don’t
practice it doesn’t mean that you can’t
accept or respected and I don’t know
about you but the last time I checked my
hair style didn’t prevent me from
learning the tutu that I wear on the
tennis court doesn’t prevent me from
winning a grand slam in the color suit
that I wear it certainly doesn’t make me
but what’s attractiveness anyway and
shouldn’t it be
shouldn’t it be subjective well yes and
no what’s attractive has become a
popularized understanding of our
cultural footprint what we as
individuals believe is attractive is
directly stemmed from our environment
that’s why men really just want to marry
women just like their mom
and as much as we want to hate them for
it they can’t help it that’s their first
perspective of what beauty and love is
like if I were to grow up in Ghana
I wasn’t grown up in the US and while
the world is becoming more
interconnected than ever we’re seeing
that the global standard of beauty is
quickly becoming the Western standard of
beauty so much so that in countries like
South Africa or China where the
population is largely people of color
white women are still at the forefront
of these commercial campaigns so it
doesn’t surprise me to hear that 70% of
women in Lagos Nigeria bleach their skin
even though skin bleaching has been
linked to cancer what that tells me is
that 10 billion dollar industry is being
upheld by this idea that beauty is
linear those women are just trying to
get ahead this idea leaves plus-sized
women filling invalid
mature women feeling as though they aged
out of their beauty beyond their
childbearing years and ethnic women
feeling unwanted and don’t get me wrong
while it impacts women the most it’s not
only us who suffer most male CEOs of
Fortune 500 companies are taller than
average because height is linked to
attractiveness and power this is a
multi-generational gender neutral issue
our children are growing up not valuing
themselves and certainly not being able
to extend that love and acceptance on to
their peers those children grow up with
low self-esteem and end up being
consumers of weight-loss pads of plastic
surgery have you guys notice the plastic
surgery trend surge around your butt and
thigh is up forty two hundred percent
since the year 2000 how crazy is that
and so it makes me think back to when I
was a little girl and I thought about me
not having the
but you know if I didn’t have that
confidence to keep going on I could be
one of these statistics so how do we how
do we transform how do we start loving
ourselves well first of all we have to
figure out what those triggers are that
make us feel less Sann is this scrolling
through social media you may need to
give it a break is it going shopping or
is it simply just going over grannies to
hear her tell you how much weight you’ve
gained since the last time she saw you
figure out what those items are and cut
them off I’m telling you if granny is
pulling you down granny has got to go
[Laughter]
you have to be prepared to go to bat for
your identity in this pop culture driven
society so I challenge each of you when
you go home today look at yourself in
the mirror see all of you look at all of
your greatness that you embody accept it
and love it and finally when you leave
the house tomorrow try to extend that
same love and acceptance to someone who
doesn’t look like you thank you [Applause]
Please follow and like us: