The white skin is the only standard for beautiful people was a mentality of mine until I met different aesthetics. I start to like the original skin.
I grew up in East Asia where the mainstream standard of beauty is white skin girls. I used to have the same idea as most people. I tried to do whiten with cosmetics, but I was born with a healthy skin tone which is a bit tanning. Once under the sun for a short time, my skin turns darker easily. The little matter about skin colour made me didn’t like my skin tone until I went to different places to travel; I met different people, different aesthetics, and gradually found that the original healthy skin colour can also be very attractive
In a backpacking journey with good friends in Malaysia Sabah, we all got tanning skin which is the colour that could make passers-by whistle. After chatting with the lifeguards on the beach, they agreed on the skin colour we had were nice. I let thought of my skin is not looking good go.
I met Stephen who came from the United States to study Chinese in Taiwan. Because his family is from Ireland, he has the appearance of red-haired and ultra-white skin. It seems to be the standard white people in the eyes of Taiwanese people. When we were walking around in Tainan city, and passengers even asked to take photos with him. But I never thought he would say it at the time; such skin colour and hair colour were often teased by classmates at school. I realized that the white skin would be also commented on the skin.
When I was in Italy, I saw an incredible product in a cosmetic store. I originally wanted to buy sunscreen, however, the sunscreens are not always available. There was a product that helps the skin gets tanning easier, which means they want to tan than white skin more than make the skin whiter.
There are many reasons to shape the aesthetics of the skin. Some are due to the influence of Western colonial power. People who are oriental ethics or African-American feel that white skin is a relatively high-class person. In Taiwan, there may be reasons like only wealthy people did not need to show up outside and work under the sun a few decades ago. That created the concepts that white skin people usually have a higher social status. While the opposite cases from foreign friends, only those who have money and leisure can go to the beach to make tanned skin, so they especially like the bronze skin tone.
Now, I am in love with my original healthy complexion. As long as I take care of my skin with my heart, no matter dark or light, I radiate confidence all the time.