Be happy with your complexion, Shaniera Akram tells brown girls

Shaniera Akram, the wife of former left-arm fast bowler and Pakistan cricket team captain Wasim Akram, shared her experience with a white complexion issue. She wants all girls to be comfortable with their skin colour.

Akram took to Instagram on Wednesday to share how many white girls grew up wishing they had darker skin.

“To all the girls with brown skin wishing they had white, I just want to let you know that there is a hell of a lot of white girls who grew up wishing they had dark skin too, I know I was one of them,” reads the caption.

She remarked many white girls thought if their skin was brown they would look healthier, prettier and more attractive to boys.

“We would go to any lengths to change the colour from white to brown because that what was instilled in our minds, that brown was more beautiful,” said Akram.

She shared her own experience of rubbing harmful oils on her face and body and laying out all day in the harsh UV sun and burning to a crisp just so that in three to four days the red and extremely painful burn would die down and eventually she would have a tan.

To all the girls with brown skin wishing they had white, I just want to let you know that there are a hell of a lot of white girls who grew up wishing they had dark skin too, I know I was one of them. We thought that if our skin was brown we looked healthier, prettier and more attractive to boys. We would go to any length to change the colour of white to brown because that what what was instilled in our minds, that brown was more beautiful. When I was growing up we rubbed harmful oil on our faces and bodies and lay out all day in the harsh UV sun and burn to a crisp, just so that in 3-4 days the red and extremely painful burn would die down and eventually we would have a brown tan! We would also spend hours lying in a solarium which is fake sunlight machine risking skin cancers, skin disease, spots and adding years to our faces causing wrinkles and irreversible damage. And when the sun wasn’t available we would also rub toxic stains and dyes in to our skin everyday to give our skin a 3-5 shades darker sun kissed brown look. We would spend incredible amounts of money to have brown body paint sprayed on our body every week that gets in our hair, clothes and bedsheets, a body paint that is almost like a stain on our skin that doesn’t wash off for days and when it eventually wore off it would leave our skin patchy, streaky and scaley. And I have never tried this but some girls have synthetic hormones injected in to their bodies to stimulate the pigment cells that produce melanin and actually change the colour of the skin from white to brown permanently. What I’m trying to say is Don’t try and change who you are, be happy underneath your skin, your beauty is interpreted by you, you are beautiful no matter what your skin colour is!! And just remember, to all the girls with brown skin who want white, you are the envy of half the women on this planet, women and girls all over the world that go to any extremes to have your colour skin, so that’s got to be something worth enjoying !!! #BeYourself #LoveYourself #TheGrassIsNotAlwaysGreener #BeautyIsOnTheInside #NeverJudgeByTheColourOfOnesSkin #WeAllStruggleToFindOurSelvesBeautiful #WhoCaresWhatOurSkinLooksLike

A post shared by Shaniera Akram (@iamshaniera) on Feb 19, 2020 at 12:09am PST

“We would also spend hours lying in a solarium, which is a fake sunlight machine risking skin cancer, skin disease, spots and adding years to our faces causing wrinkles and irreversible damage,” she said. “And when the sun wasn’t available we would also rub toxic stains and dyes into our skin every day to give our skin a 3-5 shades darker sun-kissed brown look.”

She commented that the girls would spend incredible amounts of money to have brown body paint sprayed on their body every week that gets in their hair, clothes and bedsheets, “a body paint that is almost like a stain on our skin that doesn’t wash off for days and when it eventually wore off it would leave our skin patchy, streaky and scaly”.

“I have never tried this but some girls have synthetic hormones injected into their bodies to stimulate the pigment cells that produce melanin and actually change the colour of the skin from white to brown permanently,” said Akram.

She stressed the fact that people shouldn’t try to change who they are. “Be happy underneath your skin, your beauty is interpreted by you, you are beautiful no matter what your skin colour is!!” she said. “To all the girls with brown skin who want white, you are the envy of half the women on this planet, women and girls all over the world that go to any extremes to have your colour skin, so that’s got to be something worth enjoying.”

This isn’t the first time Akram has commented on a social issue in Pakistan. She recently turned to Twitter to draw authorities’ attention towards the horrific condition of Karachi’s Clifton beach. She posted multiple photos and videos of the beach littered with medical waste, syringes, and vials of blood and called on authorities to close down the beach for the public until it is safe.

Article source: https://www.samaa.tv/entertainment/2020/02/be-happy-with-your-complexion-shaniera-akram-tells-brown-girls/