One of such women is popular makeup artist, Teniola Aisha Kashaam, known popularly as Tenny Coco. 

In a recent Instagram post, she revealed how her obsession with skin lightening began at the age of 19, and how finally at the age of 25, while reflecting on her life during her birthday period, she had an epiphany, and resolved to stop lightening her skin.

She said:

“My Road to Melanin:At the age of 19, I started lightening my skin….. By the time I was 20, I had become a heavy Skin bleacher… at the time it felt almost normal, I felt like I looked more attractive….. it became an addiction, I just couldn’t stop. I craved so much to be lighter.. I felt being black wasn’t beautiful enough. What a stupid way to have thought… I guess the society we live in played a little role in my decision to bleach my skin… coupled with being very Naive at that age. It’s widely perceived that the lighter you are, the more beautiful you look. To be honest I always knew it was a bad thing… I mean, I had seen loads of people with ridiculously damaged skin courtesy the effects of bleaching but I was just so deep into it… like I said it’s actually an addiction. 

As my 25th birthday started approaching I started to do a lot of Soul searching, a lot of self evaluation… concerning every area of my life and I finally started to see the light… to see how crazy I had been all these years… how crazy it was for me to have believed that my black skin wasn’t beautiful, to have allowed myself to feel inadequate or to try and tell God ‘ how you created me isn’t good enough’ what a silly, crazy way to have lived. Today I’m more than grateful that I finally saw the light. Black is beautiful! So beautiful! Never have I ever felt as beautiful and as at peace with my skin tone as I do now… Please Love your skin/Yourself the way God has made you…. you are beautiful, you are enough.

Time will always tell… imagine how I would look 10-15 years from now if I had continued to bleach my skin. Please don’t do it… I did it and I Had/ have so much Regret… it’s not worth it. You are beautiful just as you are.  I get a lot of messages asking me, how I was able to transition my skin back… I will be sharing all the tips soon enough.  Thank you to everyone who helped me get through this…… the Amount of support.” 

We are definitely loving the glow up! We appreciate the fact that she has been so open about her journey, and we’re sure lots of women who lighten their skin will be inspired by her story.

Embrace your skin tone ladies, whatever complexion you may be. Xx

Photo Credit: Tenny Coco

Don’t get me wrong it is very important to set goals for the year and have a plan for personal development. You, however, won’t be achieving those dreams if you’re not ready to put in the work. Set your goals and work on them, be intentional with all that you do. That’s the best way to achieve all your vision 2020 goals.

January is almost over and I was just going through my list of achievements for the month a few days ago and they honestly didn’t seem like much. It made me a little sad and really anxious. I almost drove myself crazy with worry lol, but then I realized one day, where is my faith? All my plans hinged on me doing this and achieving that so that my goals could be accomplished. I didn’t leave any room for God to intervene. Even when it became obvious that I was not going to get everything done myself I still didn’t want to accept help from him. It’s weird how we sometimes push God out of our plans forgetting that he’s all-knowing and all-seeing. If I hadn’t hit these roadblocks I probably wouldn’t have realized that I was walking this path alone when I should have asked for help from the all-powerful God I had in my corner.

Note to self Queens, this year is going to be amazing for us; we are going to smash our goals and win. We are going to work hard and watch God settle things for us. We are not going to let fear and anxieties get the best of us. Instead, we are going to let God perfect all our doings.

So you didn’t meet your “resolution targets” in January, so what? Girl,  drink some water, breathe, have faith and get ready to do better in February. Looking back at mistakes keeps you from going forward; you just keep stumbling along the way. This may sound a bit cliche sis, but let go and let God. That’s the only way to get true fulfillment and success this year.

Let me reiterate this, cuz I feel it can’t be stressed enough: This is our year of breathing, drinking, enough water, keeping the faith and winning. Make this your mantra ladies and you’ll be fine. When life and challenges try to bring you down, just let that mantra keep ringing in your head and watch things work together for your good.

Photo Credit: FreePiks.Net

Dr. Patrice Harris is totally giving us #BlackExcellence goals right now.

This ambitious doctor who hails from Bluefield, West Virginia in the United States of America, will serve as the Association’s 174th president, Charleston Gazette-Mail reports.

The West Virginia University (WVU) graduate, who begins her tenure as president June 2019, knew she wanted to be a doctor, but wasn’t sure how to achieve it since no one else in her family had gone to medical school.

“No one in my family had gone to medical school, and I had no family friends that did… it is not an easy thing to do if you don’t know or don’t have guidance about what to major in.”

Harris had studied psychiatry in Atlanta, Georgia and reveales that she she initially planned to specialise in a different field of medicine when she found that she had an unusual love for how the brain worked.

“The brain was just fascinating to me, and when I went to my third-year psychiatry clerkship I felt at home, and I then decided that I could merge my love for working with children and adolescents with psychiatry.”

“I recall early on I had been advised to perhaps go into nursing and not medicine. Nursing is a very noble career and noble profession, but it wasn’t what I wanted to do. It could have been related to the fact that I was a woman, the fact that I was a person of color…I don’t know.”

It’s such a victory to see Haddish win as her rise to the top hasn’t been easy. Her comedy career began as an escape from the tragedy she faced at the time –  when her step father tampered with the brakes of her mother’s vehicle, leading to permanent brain injury. It was also reported that her step father intended for Tiffany to also be in the car, so that the accident would kill them both. Afterwards, Haddish and her half-siblings were kept in foster care in which time Haddish would find that comedy was an outlet to deal with her horrid reality. Her journey leading up to this moment has been a slow, bumpy ride but here she is, making it.

“It’s been a year of firsts for black people,” Haddish said in her opening monologue. “I’m the first black woman to host the MTV Movie and TV Awards, ‘Black Panther‘ is the first African American movie to make $1 billion, and ‘A Quiet Place‘ is the first film to scare black people out of talking in movie theaters.”

She really is an inspiration!

Watch the hilarious opening monologue from her epic presenting MTV Movie Awards gig below:

NO ONE IS SAFE FROM @TiffanyHaddish | Tune in to #MTVAwards right now on @MTV pic.twitter.com/2ukzReW4OV

— Movie & TV Awards (@MTVAwards) June 19, 2018

Photo Credit: Steve Granitz | WireImage | Instagram

As I read through, I found myself giggling between sentences as I felt as though I had been teleported to the actress’ head. From her witty comebacks to her total oblivion of her fierceness, she can’t seem to understand what the fuss is all about. She’s just Issa.

I found myself clamoring for an angle in which to drive conversation about this interview until I noticed that the Stanford graduate was probably the most relatable star I had come across. If she could make it, then there’s hope for the rest of us right?

I’ve enumerated a few of these relatable characteristics below:

She is unabashedly BLACK and expresses it with no inhibitions

Now, there’s black and there’s Rae because she says exactly what the rest of us are thinking.

Rae not only embodies black girl magic, she is unapologetic about her need to see black people rise to prominence. In a viral red carpet video for the Emmys last year, when asked who she’d like to see bag an award, she announced that she was rooting for everybody black in her typical matter-of-fact tone. Social media loved it so much, it got a T-shirt.

In the interview, she states that she was shocked when she found that she didn’t have a 90% majority black audience.   She also pays tribute to black sitcoms such as Family Matters, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Moesha and A Different World in this photoshoot. This comes as no shock to some of her avid fans, as she has been very opinionated about her passion for black people and their empowerment in times past. In this interview, she makes reference to her hit show being birthed from her reality as a black girl growing up in a distinctly black neighbourhood in LA-the same neighbourhood that the show was being shot.

She too gets overwhelmed

“A lot going on that I didn’t anticipate”

Issa is described as ‘sighing’ when she says this.

The interviewer describes her demeanor as ‘stressed’ as she speaks about upcoming projects as not only does she play creator and actor for Insecure, she is also producing a series for HBO entitled, Him or Her. Then she also has a script for another show she is developing, called Sweet life; and an untitled drama written by The Turner House author Angela Flournoy. She was also reading scripts for other shows and for movie parts she was being offered in between takes on the Insecure set.

On her stardom and rise so far, the actor says she is fearful. She says of her success and impending commencement of the third season:

“This could be the worst season we’ve ever had. And then what? Then people are all of a sudden like, ‘Oh, okay.’ Then the calls stop. It’s like stand-up comedy: In order to eventually succeed, you have to bomb. That’s what every comedian says—that’s when the fear goes away. And I feel like I’m still fearful because I haven’t publicly bombed yet, in terms of my career. Yeah, Insecure is successful now, but where’s my bomb coming? Where are my Will Smith bombs coming? Where, where is that happening?”

Her co-actor, Yvonne Orji, who plays ‘Molly’ in the hit series also mentions that Issa really does embody the unsure character we’ve come to love and sometimes hate, speaking of Issa’s eponymous role in Insecure.

“She really does give off an awkward energy. She really is shy. She has a hard out. She has limits. She really is this person. It’s not an act.”

She has also made mistakes in her career

You know the saying, ‘not all that glitters is gold’? Issa has also had to learn that the hard way. Mistake number 1 would be her first book entitled: ‘Awkward black girl’ which detailed explicit details of her father’s unfaithfulness in his marriage and details of her personal life. Looking back now, she admits regretting the decision to publish the book.

“Just being such a private person, going back, I wouldn’t ever write about my stuff”

Her second mistake, she recounts, was allowing ABC pick apart a film she was producing after she had been introduced by Queen of Shondaland, Shonda Rhimes. ABC bought the show, but the series fell apart in development, as the network picked Rae’s script apart with a constant barrage of notes and changes. It was a formative experience. “I was a mess,” Rae says now.

“I was just like, Yeah, I have this shot, but I don’t want to fuck it up, so I’m just gonna listen to what everybody says.”

“And I just became like fucking clay for people to mold. The Shonda process was, like, the best shit that happened to me, because it gave me confidence to feel like, ‘Oh, I can do this.’ And I feel like ABC took the confidence away.” Rae emerged from the experience determined never to compromise in that way again: “Like, I need to know what the fuck I want to say before I say yes to any opportunity. I need to have a clearer point of view and clear voice.”

This became her drive to find her voice.

When HBO called, the following year, and asked Rae if she had any ideas for a show, she finally felt like she knew the answer.

The 35-year-old shows no signs of slowing down and we love her authentic and almost-absolute abandon for fitting into a perfect paradigm that we see so many stars try to embody. It is refreshing to know that her outlook on life is so real and relatable.

Like many of us she stumbles, then she gets up and figures it out. Perhaps we’ve gotten the former right, it remains that we, like her start to do the work in achieving the latter.

Hi, my name is Moyosola and I am not perfect and neither is Issa Rae but, she’s the bomb.com. So, I can be too.

Photo Credit: GQ

Nigerian photographer, Emmanuel Arewa, of Spotlight Photography, has a wide portfolio that includes some stunning headshots and portraits of African women. We’ve selected some of our favourites.

Enjoy!

Photo Credit: Spotlight Photography

More and more, we are beginning to step outside of that cultural box that is often imposed on us, and it’s so refreshing. One woman who is successfully stepping outside of this box is Beejoux.

She is unapologetically following her true calling and living life on her own terms. This American-born beauty was raised in Nigeria till the age of 16, when she moved to the United States for her university education. She attended Oregon State University, where she obtained a degree in Economics.

And now, a couple of regular 9 to 5 jobs later, here she is, fulfilling her dreams of being a full time DJ!

She talks to us about the career transition, ups and downs, as well as lessons learned so far on this path she has chosen to follow.

 Read and be inspired!

Tell us about yourself

I’m a 30-year-old DJ currently in London. My main passions in life are music and travel. And food. I grew up in Nigeria, and left at 16 for university in the US. I’d describe myself as free-spirited, passionate, optimistic, artistic, introspective, and Rihanna’s #1 fan.

Did you always know you wanted to be a DJ?
When I was younger, I think I wanted to be a doctor or something like that. Or maybe a farmer. I really never had the desire to be a DJ or saw myself behind the decks but music was a huge part of my life growing up.

I listened to the radio day and night and started to develop a huge admiration for the presenters and DJs that played the music I loved so much.

When I got to university I discovered there was a campus radio station and immediately signed up and did that for three years. After graduation I moved to New York with a music-shaped hole in my heart. I met a bunch of musicians and I always felt left out when they talked about music and they kind of made fun of me because I called myself a radio DJ but they’d never seen me in action.

In an act of defiance I booked my first gig through a bartender who was a friend of mine and it went very well. I then started playing regularly in Harlem in my spare time and continued to do so even when I changed jobs and moved to the Bay Area.

As time went by my love for music grew even more  and it got to a stage where I just couldn’t resist the call to pursue my passion for music and DJing.  So I decided to give DJing a real go and it all worked out.

What was your family’s reaction when you told them you were trading in 9 to 5 life for a full-time DJing career?

Well, my mother still doesn’t know but my siblings and other extended family are aware. She’s 70 and I can’t be responsible for killing anyone.

Considering what it could have been, the reaction of those who do know was mild. I’ve been independent and basically taking care of myself since I was 17 so I just did it and told them afterwards.

I’d been DJing and doing radio while I was working a 9 to 5 so it wasn’t such a shock to them. I could tell that they were skeptical and still are as they keep asking when I’m going back to work.

So deep was his concern that my uncle offered to pay for me to go to Harvard (like you just walk up to Harvard and claim your admission) for a Master’s degree but my strategy with them is to keep my head down and focused and let my success speak for itself. My favorite thing is to tell them that if I’m not asking them for money they need to chill.

What are some obstacles you have faced on your DJing journey?

The biggest obstacle I’ve faced has been myself. My self-doubt and lack of discipline at times have held me back in certain situations. I’ve found that people tend to have a lot more confidence in me than I have in myself and its only recently that I’ve started to really believe that I can do this even though I’ve been doing it. Now that I’ve been able to get past those two things to some degree I’ve seen my work improve. Confidence in yourself means the ability to take chances and the most beautiful things artistically come from experimentation and being able to put yourself out there.

Any significant milestones in your DJing career that you’d like to share?

I’m really excited about my upcoming New Year’s Eve gig at Soho House in Istanbul. It’s very meaningful to me because it’s an opportunity that came to me strictly on the strength of my music. Usually, how the music world works is that you know someone who knows someone who’s able to help secure a booking but the musical director of Soho House found my mix on Mixcloud somehow and reached out to me via Facebook and that really validated me. It’s also my first international gig where I’m being flown out with all expenses paid and I love that this is how I’ll be bringing in the new year!

What’s next for DJ Beejoux?

It’s a pretty wild time for me right now. I’m in the process of planning a tour of Asia kicking off in February 2018. I’m also launching a weekly playlist on Spotify for those who want to take a little piece of Beejoux on the road.  I’m also working with the Tate Museum to put on a night of vintage and current African music.

What’s your vision for your life in the next 10 years?

First of all, I see myself living on several continents because I’m just not about this Winter life! Djing in the UK/US/wherever in the Spring and Summer then spending Winter and Fall in the Caribbean or even Nigeria where I plan to open up beach bars and music venues. I’m a huge lover of live music (obviously) and it would be my dream to have all of my favorite musicians play for me. Aside from that, I’d like to start some sort of organization that pushes female empowerment in “third world” countries. Feminism has gotten a head start in the West, but I need our young women in countries with lots of inequality to understand their power and develop their potential. So basically in 10 years I’ll be a world renowned DJ, mogul, and philanthropist.

Who are some female African DJs you look up to?

DJ Zinhle is a beast. I’ll confess that I really didn’t follow any African female DJs until you asked me this question and I had to do some research. DJ Soupa Model is also quite good. I love the fact that she produces as well.

What’s your advice to anyone looking to leave “conventional employment” for a career in DJing or the arts in general?

If you’re still thinking about and have been doing so for a while you need to just do it. I started out DJing on the side and saved up some money before making the plunge so I’d recommend that route in order to build up your fan base and see if it’s something that’s actually doable.

It will be difficult, but with the right attitude, hard work, and talent, you can do it. And if it fails, your day job is not going anywhere, as the world will always need accountants, lawyers, etc. so you can always go back but you deserve a chance at fulfillment and happiness.

Has DJing been financially rewarding so far?

Not really. I’ve had to do other things (like Airbnb my apartment) to supplement my income. It has been more about the personal fulfillment and being able to follow my passion. I know people who have been DJing and making music for twenty years but still have side hustles. DJing is not about the money unless you’re lucky enough to be part of that 0.0001% that makes it big.

What’s the price of chasing your dreams against all odds?

Oh my gosh, these past two years have been a rollercoaster of emotions. Sleepless nights filled with doubts and worries, wondering where the next gig will come from then sometimes getting the gig and then screwing up royally due to a lack of experience. Scrolling through Instagram and Facebook where everyone seems to be doing better than you are. I have been taken so very far out my comfort zone, which has actually brought some positives to counterbalance all of the mental distress. I feel like I’ve gained a certain sense of self and realize that I can handle anything. My people skills have also improved 1000-fold.

What is your definition of success?

Basically being able to do what I want, when I want, and having the means to do it. I feel successful already because I’m living the life I want to live, playing the music I love, traveling around the world and meeting good people. I don’t have to deal with any bullshit and my future is entirely in my hands. That is success to me.