It’s no secret that I have a thing for colorful looks. I say it in just about every blog post that I share with bold hues. But, why I’m drawn to color and almost always avoid a totally neutral look, is something I’ve discussed in therapy. A lot of the reasons for my preference for wearing color stem from childhood, and today, I’m sharing with y’all why I gravitate to wearing color.
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PHOTOS BY: MEGAN PRYLL PHOTOGRAPHY
I WAS BULLIED GROWING UP
This is no secret, I’ve shared here, how I was bullied a lot in school. Not physical bullying but verbal, which, in my opinion, can be worst. Simply because this type of bullying is hones on the things you can’t change or control. To be honest, there are lasting effects that I’m still working through in therapy. I was bullied for “talking white,” which isn’t a thing 🙄, being dark-skinned, for being in the gifted classes, for being African. Honestly, the list goes on. All of these topics of focus have impacted the way I move in this world and how I perceive myself. The one thing that cut the most, and was the most prevalent, was the thing that I couldn’t change about myself – my skin tone.
I didn’t quite understand, and still don’t, to be honest, why people feel such a way about how dark my complexion is. And why people feel compelled to comment about it. Yes, even now, as an adult, at least once a month, someone has something to say. Because of this, I used to avoid colors that would accentuate my complexion. I just didn’t want to stand out or draw more attention to the folks that bullied me.
WEARING COLOR ALLOWS ME TO RECLAIM MY BEAUTY
Junior year of high school, I was in the locker room getting ready for gymnastics, and I overheard someone telling another dark skin classmate that she doesn’t like bright colors on dark skin girls. I was taken aback that she felt the need to tell this girl what she didn’t like about someone else. Projection much?! But what surprised me more, and help shift the way I thought, was the response – “well, you might not like it, but I love it, and I’m going to keep wearing it.”
Ear hustling that conversation helped me realize that people are going to say what they want to say regardless if I want them to or not. This helped me feel a little more confident about wearing colors. So much so, I wore yellow at both junior and senior prom. This change in attitude and the incorporation of more color through college and now was a reclaiming of my beauty. Showing the world that I love my complexion and will wear the colors that make it pop. Internally, I knew this, but sometimes hearing someone else – aka my therapist – say it helps further validate the decision I made.
ALL COLORS LOOK GREAT ON MY SKIN TONE
“I’m a Black girl, all colors look good on me.”
@Flossybaby
Flossy Baby said it best! What color doesn’t look good on me?! I mean, it’s no secret that Black girls and women look good in every color I’ve seen on this earth. For me, I think my deeper complexion makes all colors pop in a way that makes me feel powerful and unstoppable. Wearing colors that make me feel this way is helpful on those days when my self-confidence is low.
