Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder

When I started dancing and singing as a child, I first realized that my skincolor will open doors for me, but will also close some.
Other children in kindergarten told me, I was adopted, cos my mother can not be white. They asked me if I spent to much time in the sun or if I'm an African. I suffered from looking different and I felt lonely. Even my granny tried to hide my afrohair in many ways.

It took me a long time to realize, that my skincolor and my mixed hair are not something bad and that I have to embrace myself the way I am.

Growing up in Austria as a "dark skinned" person means that you are often confronted with disbelieve and prejudice.
We don't have a big black community in this country and I don't really identify myself as black or African, cos I had a white mom I grew up with and my parents got divorced when I was still young. So I also did not grew up with any kind of African culture. I had to become 26 before I first visited my Kenyan family for the first time, but thats another story... ;)

Dealing with prejudice and rasicm almost every day changes you and you come to a point, where you know you have to make a decision. Do I want my whole life being overshadowed by others people opinion or do I take this (often negative) energy and try to create something good with it? Maybe even being a role model for other people, who are going through the same things, I was going through.

Working as a model was a coincidence, but it was important for me to see myself through others eyes. And to show other people, that different hair and skincolor can be beautiful as well. I was lucky to meet open minded people, who helped me open my eyes and to see, that beauty has so many different shades.

Today I know, that being different is not something bad and we don't need to be all the same. Beauty has many faces and you can find it everywhere if you look closely.