Personal Narrative Essay On Being A Young Black Woman

As a young black woman I feel as if I have to try harder than most because I’m not the “typical” Caucasian woman. Being a woman is hard, but being a minority is even harder. I️ believe that black women should not have to adapt to eurocentric beauty standards in order to be deemed important. Through my high school career I’ve always felt like I️ had to succumb to Eurocentric beauty. Straightening my, naturally curly, hair had become a daily routine. I️ often forgot how much I️ loved my curly Afro, because I️ was too worried about trying to match the models in the magazines. In magazines there’s rarely ever and Black women, and when they’re seen you can tell that they’ve altered their faces with makeup and photoshop. With this altering the magazine company has taken away the true features of an African American person. While reading and looking at these pictures I️ look at myself in the mirror. “Why can’t my nose be small and button like, like the women in the magazine?” “Why can’t my lips be smaller?” These were the questions I️ asked myself,because I️ felt like I️ wasn’t beautiful. One thing I️ failed to realize is that all people aren’t made the same, and African Americans tend to have the fuller lips, bigger foreheads, and wider noses. That’s what makes us so beautifully different.
Black women are not. White women are paragons of virtue and desire. Black women are objects of fetishism and brutality. This quote spoke volumes to me because as senior in highschool I look on social media and see non-African American women with African American features, and they’re idolized for their beauty. For example the Kardashian-Jenner family is known for having full lips, and has managed to make them mainstream and trendy. Black women are shamed although the same features exist on them naturally. While caucasian women are admired for altering their bodies, plumping thier lips, and tanning their skin to darker