Lupita Nyong'o reveals bullies teased her for being 'dark-skinned' (2024)

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Lupita Nyong'o has admitted her confidence was drastically knocked by bullies who teased her for being 'dark-skinned' when she was growing up.

The Oscar-winning actress, 41, who was raised in Kenya before moving to the United States, candidly discussed her experience of colourism in a new interview.

She wowed in a slew of stunning ensembles as she stunned on the front cover of Glamour magazine for UK, US, Germany and Mexico.

Speaking on the bullying she suffered growing up, Lupita told the publication: 'I got teased a lot for being dark-skinned. I went to an all-girls school for elementary school, and then I switched to coed school when I was 12.

'So just when I was coming into myself and becoming aware of my sexuality, I was being teased a lot by boys for being dark. So I definitely wasn't confident, but how I dealt with that was, I think I just developed my character to compensate.'

Colourism is a prejudice against people with a darker skin tone or the preferential treatment of those of the same race but have lighter skin tones.

The colourism she experienced was the inspiration behind her children's book, Sulwe, a story about a young girl who wishes for her skin to be lighter, but learns to love who she is.

Lupita was born in Mexico City, and was sent to live there for seven months to learn Spanish when she was 16.

She continued: 'Mexicans really liked me as an anomaly, and they were really intrigued by what they thought was beautiful about me. And so that was the first time that people would come up to me and say, "Wow, you're so beautiful."'

And when Lupita returned to Kenya to finish high school, she came back with a different mindset: 'I felt stronger in myself. I felt more beautiful. I'd gotten that validation in a way that I just hadn't had before.'

Lupita previously revealed she was once told she was 'too dark' to be on television.

Speaking to Emily Maitlis on BBC's Newsnight in 2019, Lupita detailed the shocking prejudice she encountered during a television audition and discussed her experiences of colourism while growing up in Kenya.

She said: 'I once auditioned for something on TV and I was told I was too dark to be on television.'

The acclaimed actress' body of work in television includes Shuga and Star Wars Forces of Destiny.

The Black Panther star also discussed her upbringing in Kenya, and said her younger sister's 'lighter' skintone was praised in a way her skintone was not, as she opened up about colourism - which she branded 'the daughter of racism.'

She said: 'I had a younger sister who was born five years after me and she was a lot lighter and she got called pretty and beautiful and all of that.

'She was praised for the lightness of her skin in a way that, I don't recall being praised for the darkness in mine.

'Self-consciously that translates into: 'I'm not worthy'.'

'I definitely grew up feeling uncomfortable with my skin colour because I felt like the world around me awarded lighter skin

'Colourism is born of racism. It is the daughter of racism. And so from a world that rewards lighter skin over darker skin, this then becomes a prejudice among people of the same race.

'So it's the preferential treatment of people with lighter skin and is very, very much linked to racism.'

Read the full interview in the GLAMOUR June Digital Issue online now.

Lupita Nyong'oGermany