- The first line says, "Don't let dull,
"dark skin rob you of romance."
(gentle music)
- If I could describe how mainstream society
views dark-skinned women, it would be ugly.
- Different. - Dirty.
- Unwanted.
- I did not feel beautiful growing up.
- I think I've never felt pretty
and it's probably because I am dark-skinned.
- I remember I had someone who came up
to me and called me "burnt skin."
- I think a lot of girls want to be pretty,
whether they want to admit it or not.
- And it's always been an effort to make me lighter,
to make me prettier, and that's never
actually successfully happened.
- When I was younger, I didn't even know
that skin-bleaching creams existed.
- My mom started giving me creams, I think third grade.
And then I finally stopped before middle school started
because my skin started peeling off,
I'd burn or worse, I'd get cancer or anything,
and I couldn't play sports, I couldn't go in the sun,
I couldn't do normal daytime activities
because we had to make me fair.
I've used Ambi before, this was not drastic enough.
- Fades dark spots for even, natural skin tone.
- My entire face is a dark spot, though.
- This seems so innocent.
- They have brown in it, but they're telling you,
"Don't be brown, though, go from this to this."
This is called Diamante.
I don't like how pretty this one is.
- What are these? - I'm hella confused.
- Are these bath gels?
- What if I wanted my skin white,
right now, this would take forever.
- There's a woman on here with a before and after picture
but the woman doesn't even look that much lighter.
- Maybe this'll help you think twice.
You're just like, "You know what, I'm just gonna stay black,
"'cause it's too much that I have to do."
Perfect White, that's what this is called?
- Come on.
- Are you kidding me, it seems like a SNL joke,
I can't believe it's called Perfect White.
- It's kind of super on-the-nose.
It's like a weird way to shame people.
- It has an exclamation point, it is perfect!
- It's basically trying to have you
wipe out your essence of who you are.
Skin-beautifying body oil.
So it's already telling you that you'll be
more beautiful if you're light.
- This one is so interesting because it says,
formulated for people of color.
- The difference is clear.
(laughs)
- For better skin tone and lighter, brighter complexion.
- Clinically proven to be safe and effective.
These are all lies.
- Now when I look in the mirror, I see a young black girl
who has worked super hard to understand why people act
the way they do when it comes to black people in general.
- I'm happy I'm dark, I wouldn't wanna be any other color.
- So I'm going through the period of being comfortable
with self, and I think right now I'm seeing
something I'm pretty comfortable with.
- I see myself, obviously, but I also see the women
behind me who've allowed me to be where I am.
- I feel like brown girls were given this exterior
because we're warriors and we're supposed to fight off
everything that's thrown at us.
This is our armor, this is our shield
and we have a lot of battles to fight
but we have the backbone to do so.
- I don't see what's wrong with brown or dark or black,
there's nothing wrong with it,
that's just something that's taught.
- Don't be so hard on yourself,
oh my god, don't be so hard on yourself.
- From my perspective, I would describe
women with darker skin as lucky.
- Fearless. - Beautiful.
- Unique.
- I'm so lucky that I'm brown.
(gentle music)