Lupita Nyong’o Said She Was Criticized By Her Natural Hair
Lupita Nyong’o can do no wrong in our eyes, but in a new interview with Porter the actress opened up that Hollywood wasn’t always so welcoming for her.
“My hair is something that, historically, has been shunned. I mean, how often do you hear ‘You can’t get a job with hair like that’?” she said. “Natural, African, kinky hair — it’s often been painted as uncivilized or wild. Being featured on the cover of a magazine fulfills me as it is an opportunity to show other dark, kinky-haired people, and particularly our children, that they are beautiful just the way they are.”
Lupita has always been advocating for Black women to show their natural kinks. In November 2017, she publicly slammed a magazine that edited her hair out of an editorial. “I am disappointed that @graziauk invited me to be on their cover and then edited out and smoothed my hair to fit their notion of what beautiful hair looks like,” she wrote.
She added to Porter mag, “I come from a very patriarchal world, but not within my family. My dad listened to my mom. My mom held her own. There was never a sense of her deflecting from my father. She had the power to say no to things, and I saw her hold that power.”