Issa Rae

The Actress And Insecure Creator Defines Beauty On Her Own Terms

- Kahlana Barfield Brown

How did you feel about  your looks when you  were younger? I felt I was not represented by the beautiful black women I saw on my TV screen. I think I internalized that from an early age without realizing it. My mom, who is light-skinned, always told my sister and me how beautiful dark-skinned black women are. I would say, “Mom, you don’t know because you don’t look like us.” She understood and would try to convince us otherwise, but in the ’90s, Aaliyah was popping, and fair-skinned women were the beauty standard.