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Diop shared her experience of growing up dark-skinned in Senegal in a video for Real Women, Real Stories.
She said: “It’s a very big problem in my country. Around 12 or 13 my own cousin started asking me why I don’t want to use those products.”
She added that advertising for bleaching products is everywhere in Senegal and that some of those products even cost less than a dollar.
Some girls and women even make their own concoctions that end up pulling off their skin with horrifying results.
Thankfully for Diop, she resisted the pressure. She is now achieving success in New York as an emerging model.
Her Instagram photos went viral online last year and launched her modeling career. To express her pride in her dark skin, she refers to herself as the Melanin Goddess.
She said: “I felt like why would I change my skin. I didn’t have to listen to nobody or look how anybody wanted me to look. I just wanted to be myself and look however I want.”
Watch Diop share her experience below.
