Lupita, who's debut role as Patsey in 12 Years A Slave has propelled her to the heady stratosphere of stardom, attacked stereotypical views on beauty while accepting her award for Best Breakthrough Performance. Quoting from a letter sent to her by a fan that read "I think you are really lucky to be this black, but yet this successful in Hollywood overnight. I was about to buy skin whitening cream when you appeared on the world map and saved me," Lupita spoke about her own struggle with the colour of her skin and feeling "unbeautiful.".
"I got teased and taunted. My one prayer to God, the miracle worker, was to have lighter skin," Lupita said. "My self-hate grew worse when I was a teenager," she added.
For solace, Lupita turned to the movie The Color Purple (the star of which film, Oprah Winfrey, was watching Lupita deliver her speech) and Sudanese supermodel, the 'dark as night' Alek Wek. The world of glamour - so often accused of promoting cruel and unrealistic notions of beauty - became the very thing that gave Lupita her moment of epiphany. "I couldn't believe a woman of her (Alek Wek) colour was being embraced," the actress said.
She saw in Wek a reflection of herself and came to realise that "you can't eat beauty. You can't rely on how you look to sustain you. What sustains us is compassion."
She ended her moving speech with a message for her young fan struggling to feel 'beautiful'. Said she, " I hope my presence on your screen and magazines makes you feel the validation of your external beauty but, also get to the bigger business of being beautiful inside. There is no shade to that beauty."
Lupita Nyong'o, beautiful inside and out, was applauded by an audience of powerful black women including Oprah, singer Chaka Khan and actress Regina King.
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