By Boluwatife Ezekiel Olaleye
 
You hate yourself because you are dark-skinned and not light-skinned, you feel inferior and depressed because of your colour and you decide to constantly bleach your skin to be like the “whites”  only to realize that the end result makes you look even worse than your natural, God-given colour; colour-riot playing a major role on the human skin, Why?! 

You despise your body shape, probably because you don’t have the privilege to be gifted with juicy booty and boobs, to twerk outrageously, in a mind-blowing manner like your friends would do and you decide to do a plastic surgery to attain the bodily status of, say like,  American Superstar “Nicki Minaj” or more, tell me, Why? Some die in the process, some get disfigured forever, do you ever think of that? Not everyone has the same grace.

Are you the type that curse yourself for coming to this world as a boy or girl, hate God for creating you a male instead of a female or a female instead of a male? The type that acts like a tomboy or “sissy”, if there is any word like that and will always feel like ripping out the throat of people who call them what they actually are, what they are trying so hard to hide? You better begin to love yourself for who you are lest you risk becoming a Bobrisky or even worse, a Bruce Jenner.


Are you the type that always want to do everything, be everything? Because you get sad, jealous or annoyed that your friend(s) can sing better than you, can act better which gives them a chance of making it in the entertainment industry, can cook better, can write better, can play football, basketball better or because they are the type that always win the affection or likes of people, especially ladies, when they do those things you find yourselves doing together but that they can do better than you? Common, to love yourself is to understand that you don’t need to be perfect to be good and besides, not everyone has the same calling, no need to be filled with envy or hate for yourself because of what you want to know how to do but not good at it or for the other person because he is extremely good at that thing or things you want to know how to do. You have got your own special innate ability dying to be actualized.

Millions of people can believe in you and yet, none of it matters if you don’t take the step to believe in yourself first.

Eat like you love yourself, move like you love yourself, speak like you love yourself, act like you love yourself, just love yourself, enough to set boundaries. Your time and energy are precious. You get to choose how you use it. You teach people how to treat you by deciding what you will and won’t accept. Love yourself first and everything falls into place.

Stop hating yourself for everything you aren’t and start loving yourself for everything that YOU ARE. Loving yourself might just be the hardest thing to do but it is the beginning of a lifelong relationship.

Be yourself, accept yourself, value yourself, forgive yourself, bless yourself, express yourself, trust yourself and...
LOVE YOURSELF.



 A/N):
you need to know this though if you care...

I was tempted to mention Micheal Jackson in this but for those that didn't know before, the man popularly referred to as the "King of Pop" didn't change his skin colour because he didn't like being dark-skinned, he had a skin disorder named Vitiligo.

Vitiligo is a  disorder in which white patches of skin appear on different parts of the body. This happens because the cells that make pigment (color) in the skin are destroyed. These cells are called melanocytes 
The picture above explains better.

This made him feel bad about himself and this prompted the change of his skin. He probably feared that [eople will reject him, even after the change of skin, he was not in anyway liked at all, he was described as a racist but there are several famous people out there who also had vitiligo like Top model, Winnie Harlow who proved that the skin disesa is no barrier to success in the fashion business as she walked on runways and also won a lot of contracts with Spanish clothing brand such as Vogue and Cosmopolitan.

Another is American football, D-line Coach for the NY Jets, Karl Dunbar who refuses to let vitiligo get in the way of his job. Karl uses his platform as an NFL coach to inform people about vitiligo

and many more...

These famous people care less of what people think of them and appreciate themselves and their skin. They rather educate people suffering from this disorder that having vitiligo isn't the end of the world. You can have a skin disorder and still live life in full... These people are in fact loved by the people... So changing what comes natural about you rather than appreciating it doesn't warrant that you will be loved by the people.