Lupita Nyong'o Quotes

And my one prayer to God, the miracle worker, was that I would wake up lighter-skinned.

When I was, like, 5 years old, I used to pray to have light skin because I would always hear how pretty that little light skin girl was, or I would hear I was pretty to be dark skin. It wasn't until I was 13 that I really learned to appreciate my skin color and know that I was beautiful.

I got teased and taunted about my night-shaded skin, and my one prayer to God, the miracle worker, was that I would wake up lighter-skinned. The morning would come, and I would be so excited about seeing my new skin that I would refuse to look down at myself until I was in front of a mirror because I wanted to see my fair face first.

It's hard to love yourself when you've been told your whole life that there is something wrong with you - when you are called dirty because of your skin color.

Me being dark-skinned, that was like a big thing. Growing up, I hated myself. It was, like, weird. Kids are cruel.

The light-skinned girls always thought they were better looking. So did the teachers, too. That meant most of the dark complexion ones didn't like themselves.

Even if you apply any kind of lotion and straighten your hair you will never be white.

When I was young, to have a big nose, big lips or dark skin was the worst. You were the wretched.

The message of the movie is to accept who you are and not to succumb to the pressure of what the media tells you is beautiful and what you should be looking like.

Weight issues, race issues will always be there and if you allow them to get to you and you allow them to affect you then yes they affect you. But my thing is I have so many other things to worry about I can't worry about other people's perception of me.

Not everybody is some kind of media model.

I'm being mocked because I don't live up to a socially determined view of what other people think a person should look like.

It makes me sad that corporations and media and Hollywood conspire to make people feel terrible about their bodies from the second they wake up, so I sort of try to subversively undercut that.

I know what it feels like to carry a lot of weight in a society that's very image-conscious. It's a thin person's world, and we try to navigate within it without being made fun of.

When I was young, to have a big nose, big lips or dark skin was the worst. You were the wretched. That was something I not only felt, but I participated in.

I went to a predominantly white school, and I was the only black girl. I can remember thinking, 'I don't want to be as dark as I am - I want to be a little fairer.' I didn't want to be me.

Judgment is judgment, whether you're obese, or too skinny, or not athletic enough.

Why the heck do we allow the media to ever tell us someone is gross? It makes me so mad. 99% of the world has flaws.

The first thing people say to me when they meet me is, 'You're so much skinner in person.' You have to live up to these standards that are so unrealistic. I try to tune it out.

In grammar school some of the girls had problems with me. My face was too light. My hair was too long. It was the black-consciousness period, and I felt really bad.

Who taught you to hate the texture of your hair? Who taught you to hate the color of your skin? Who taught you to hate the shape of your nose and the shape of your lips? Who taught you to hate yourself from the top of your head to the soles of your feet? Who taught you to hate your own kind?

I didn't like my hair and makeup one time on a photo shoot, and my publicist told me, 'You should just be happy with it - they haven't had a black girl on the cover since forever.' She's no longer my publicist.

There are a bunch of images that are thrown in our faces all the time about what we're supposed to look like at 14, 15, 16. It's confusing. I think every woman can identify with that struggle.

Even though I was very young, it was traumatizing seeing someone try weird things on their skin all for the sake of being lighter. It's as common as relaxing your hair or maybe even brushing your teeth. I had friends not wanting to do it, but their moms gave them creams to help lighten their skin. That's how accessible it is.

I want to be a voice for that: just because I've lost weight doesn't mean that I'm happy and content with my body. Because of the media, and because of what I feel I should look like, it's always going to be a battle in my head.