Actress Zendaya is no stranger to being called a beautiful black girl. She has all of the physical features that white society has conditioned us to believe is beautiful when it comes to Black girls or women. Shes fair-skinned, she has mixed heritage, light eyes, thin lips, you know, very European in her appearance.
Speaking at the Beautycon Festival in New York on Sunday, the actor discussed her platform, adding that she feels she is Hollywood’s “acceptable version of a black girl and that has to change.”
Danielle on Twitter
I am Hollywood’s acceptable version of a Black girl and that has to change. We’re vastly too beautiful and too interesting for me to be the only representation of that.” – #Zendaya in conversation with @BadAssBoz at #BeautyconNYC https://t.co/wZaIrJm1Tw
This is a very bold and important statement by Zendaya who could remain silent and reap the benefits of the racist Hollywood world she thrives in. Instead, she chooses to identify with her blackness and sees the ignorant obsession with her features to be offensive to the deep and rich variety of black women with their many complexions, talents, styles, hair, and beauty.
Zendayas comments immediately inspired a legion of women on Twitter who feel the same way, but don’t have the platform to say it. There are thousands of girls feeling misplaced and undervalued in society, in need of a role model who doesn’t perpetuate the false stereotypes about Black women that are so rampant in our society.
Zendaya on Twitter
This is beautiful…sending you all the positive energy https://t.co/pxv5JLqn3b
Its important for women of color in positions of power and celebrity to help uplift other young women and be healthy and relatable role models for the girls who might feel unworthy because of an unfair and outdated projection and perception of beauty in America.
